There is a tremendous increase in computer hardware sold. We have been moving heaps. Here above are some pictures of yesterday.

The big problem is the troubled supply line because of COVID. 

This is partly because of the increase in the tax concessions for computer hardware now available. So now accountants are advising their clients to buy as they can write off more. You can probably write off a lot of money now. 

It is also because new computers are much better than the previous ones. Some of the new AMD ryzen and Intel chips are a qualitative leap in technology. We see a 50% increase in raw speed on benchmarking. This is together with their dramatic price decrease. In a typical retail system, upgrading one computer, the server can increase the systems speed. So if you get one computer, make the old server a new cash register, and you have a more extensive and faster computer system.  

Also what people are doing is moving from the older hard drives to the newer hard drives here that are much faster. It is a low-cost way of increasing your speed.

It is also because of COVID. The lockdowns have forced people to see that they need more than a mobile to meet their technology needs. For example, if you need a home office,  you need a proper computer, large screens and webcams for zoom and printers at home. 

As I said, the biggest problem is the import complications of getting computer hardware into the country. So we have many people just waiting for gear.

If you want to know more give us a call.

If you wanted to increase your computer speeds, these M2 SSD hard drives were the answer. Unfortunately, until relatively recently, these were not an option. Few were available and very expensive.  Yet, this has changed. Prices have dropped, and supply has gone up.

Here is a speed test.

Based on this, you are looking at a 25 times increase compared to your existing HDD hard drive. If you have an SSD drive, then you can see here a five times increase. 

Here are some more benefits.

- What I particularly notice is that they are so much quieter as they produce no noise. The constant background noise of a computer, I find it very annoying.

- They should last longer than traditional mechanical hard drives as they have no moving parts.

-Less cable inside as it has no power cables and no data cables.

-It is smaller, so you get better use of space.

Replacing your hard drive will give you a massive performance boost to your PC. It’ll be like having a brand new computer.

Interested let us know.

Most mobile in their payment solutions has a section where a person can add a loyalty barcode. Why should I carry ten plus different loyalty cards when I can use this section. Retailers know this, so now they are moving away from plastic retail loyalty cards and going digital.  The added benefit is that they save money on plastic cards.

To do this, you need a 2D Imager Barcode Scanners to scan barcodes on mobile devices. While laser scanners' low price point is now attractive, do not buy these scanners if you intend to scan a barcode off of a mobile phone screen as they cannot scan the mobile screen. This is because these scanners emit light, and then they check the reflected light. The problem is that modern mobile screens today have anti-reflection technology to prevent glare so the laser scanner cannot read the reflected light.  

For this reason, we now recommend 2D imaging barcode scanners.

These new receipt printers look stylish. Something important but often overlooked as they are often on the front counter as they view the public. 

I liked that they have a warning with an alarm and/or flashing light signal if the receipt is not picked up. This function would be useful for many, e.g. packing in a storeroom or a kitchen in a restaurant. 

Another cool function is that it has a memory, and if you lose the last receipt, e.g. paper jam, it can reprint it.

They are also fast.

Usage in Windows 7 has been dramatically falling as such Microsoft has ended support for Windows 7.

For many left on it, what now?

The immediate problem is that Microsoft will no longer produce updates for Windows 7. That means you'll be cut off from security updates, which puts you at greater risk.  Hardware and software suppliers will soon drop Windows 10, as they did Windows XP. Some have no choice, as Windows 7 is no longer considered secure.

Source: StatCounter Global Stats - Windows Version Market Share

As you can see in Australia, it has dropped from almost 72% in 2010 to 9% usage today. That 9% cannot pay for much is the Microsoft problem here. Some, like a competitor, are now telling their Windows 7 users that they plan an increase in support fees for them.

We have been urging our clients to move to Windows 10! 

Note that if you are on a DOS system, we recommend you not move.

If you are thinking of updating, then please give us a call.

While I was looking at the new generation of scales that are coming out, I noticed quite a few improvements.

-Touch displays are standard 

-Displays are now colour standard, they make the customer display look quite stunning.

-Face recognization camera included

-Fingerprinter scanners are available as an extra.

Let us know if you are interested.

Despite everyone going on, Moore's law has peaked, and computers are not getting much faster; well I beg to differ. People want speed. Look at this machine speed specs—our latest servers.

It ranks in the top 82% of computers.

This computer can copy a full movie in half a second. To get that speed, we had to replace the cables with cat8. These have to be the most powerful computers in our marketplace.

If you want some comparison, these servers look at the Mendel range we were selling about a year ago.  

Speed is double. Disk mark is seven times faster.

This is the machine to beat!

Today, your monitor and computer come with a large number of settings. These can tweak your screen to make it look better for you. Many of these controls are standard such as brightness, contrast and colour. Many are quite advanced, and even experts have trouble understanding them.

So I get this question a lot, how to improve the screen.

As a rule, its the contrast that been set too high. Your monitor should not act as a light if it is then it is too high. If you look at it too long, it will hurt your eyes, so turn it down.

If I need more, what I find is that generally, the windows functions adequate, in Windows 10, you will find them in

Select Start > Settings > System > Display

If I want to go deeper, what works for me is to load on the screen a high-quality B/W image and then play with the setting. When I am happy with the B/W image, then I will put a colour image on the screen and check it out with that.

If you want to see a decent discussion on what to do, I recommend this video.

In shops, you often need to put computers into small places. If you think about it, a computer often in a shop is sitting on the most valuable space. Its the prime selling area. So it is great that we can get them smaller. I am sure many of you will be shocked how small we can build computers. Yes, we build computers, as most point of sale systems do need unique computer configurations.

Check out these hard drives.

This one is a 256GB SSD.

This is changing as we are getting more orders for a terabyte hard drive as the difference in price is so small now that most people prefer the larger size.

The advantages

-They are faster, much faster. When I switch a computer on with these hard drives, I am stunned how fast they startup now. Now our computer processor and our software speeds have increased, so it is the hard drive that is slowing down your system! That is wasting your time, your customers and your staffs time. These drives can help.

-They use less electricity. The hard drive does consume a large amount of the power a computer uses. Less electricity saves money.

-As such, they make for a quieter computer. The electricity used in a computer becomes heat and as its less electricity.

- As it uses less heat,  the computer fan does not need to run as much. What often bugs me if I am on a computer for a long time is the sound of its fan. Besides being annoying, I am sure it is having a long term effect on my ears.

- They do not have any moving parts. There are lots of small, moving parts inside your hard drive e.g. magnetic heads, spindles, and spinning platters. The failure of any one of these parts is the leading cause of hard drive failures and so computer failures. This will save on maintenance.

As such for our users, we recommend them switching over to these drives when they do upgrades.

Integrated weight scales do save many businesses time and money! 

As the scale and our POS software communicate, it is much faster. You also avoid many mistakes caused by the double-entry of figures. 

We do have a terrific range of such scales.

There are two basic types we market.

The first is the older label scales. What you do is package items in a pack., Then weight them on these scales and the scale prints a label, that can be processed at any checkout in your shop. The big plus is one scale can do the whole shop. Another is that you have control over your selling units.

The other type which I now recommend because of the dramatic price drop is the regular scale. Unlike some scales that our competitors sell, ours can read barcodes, so there is no double keying. After scanning, you weigh the item that the customer specifies. It then transfers the weight to the point of sale software which does the maths. It will then display to the customer in a large and clear type to them so they can read it too. 

With the integration of our retail weighing solution, we give you a faster checkout. 

One of our clients did not have any place on his front counter, so we had to order for them a small computer.

It is a functional register, with a network interface, a powerful processer and a hard drive.

We nailed it in, on the wood under the table so it took no space. 

Pretty cool!

A customer-facing screen is a screen that faces customers at the point of sale. Most large retailers use them.  Often in a three-in-one unit like this one.

Using them while you are ringing up the transaction, your customer can actively follow what you are doing.

Here are some advantages that it gives you

-It helps build customer trust, as the customer can see what you have put in while you are doing it.

-It speeds up the queue as the customer will have many of their queries answered on the screen, eg the price of a product or whether a discount was applied. 

-It gives you an aura of professionalism. 

If you are interested, let us know.

Speed vital when it comes to POS software, no-one wants to wait. The customers want to be in and out quickly. If the queues start to get big, then people walk out. What annoys retailers is when they see people dumping their proposed purchases and leave.  What is even worse people then often avoid shops that they know has long queues and do not come back.  

Industry-standard to do this is about 40 seconds a transaction plus about three seconds for each item to scanned and rung up.  So if you want to ring up four things, the time taken industry expects to be about 40 seconds plus four items in their basket at 3 seconds each, so it is about 52 seconds.

The fact is no matter how fast you go, you always need faster speeds. That is why there is always a demand for faster computers.

There were two leading suppliers for computers Intel and AMD.

Recently both have dropped their prices on high-end products so resulting now in a lot of people being more interested in getting super-fast computers. In the past, Intel was considered the premium brand and AMD, the more affordable. So the price points were stable.

Not any more, today the new AMD with its Ryzan chip is more powerful than the Intel alternative in many cases.  Plus its getting better. What I like as well is that it has smoother performance, I hate it when the software slows and then jumps at you.

The battle between AMD and Intel is heating up, and we can already see the price drop because the quality difference now I think is tiny, so we are now having super-computers at a budget price.

The coronavirus has caused significant change across all our lives. We all have to deal with the new normal. Today in the world of business, life moves on, and effective meetings need to be done. 

So today, almost all of us are using online meetings. 

This was a growing trend earlier but this pandemic has speeded up the process, and I am sure that this trend will continue even if COVID-19 suddenly disappeared. Today in Australia, court hearings are being done with zoom and skype.

Now I would say that every business needs the proper equipment to participate in these meetings.

What I suggest you need is to upgrade your back office computer by adding another monitor. 

This will give you a Dual Display, which allows you to participate with the online meeting and also get organised. , It is said that dual monitors increase productivity by 20-30 percent.

The monitor should have built-in speakers if your premises can use them, I think it looks better then a headphone and works better. Also like many others, I find extended use of a headphone painful on my ear. That is why I prefer to use the built-in speakers. 

Since you are going to be looking at people, not text for quite a while on these conferences, I would recommend a 4K display to see a decent image. Plus you need something that is a reasonable size so nothing smaller than a 27 inch. Who watches TV on small screens nowadays if they can help it.  Check it out and make sure that it is clear and has a readable screen (to prevent headaches), I prefer the brighter displays to cut down on the glare. Remember you are right in front of it for a long time.

What would you be able to see here say on a small screen?

With us, a typical online meeting has over eighty (80+) people attending. I have attended meetings with much more.

I use a 34-inch gaming monitor.

We had a problem with one of our clients a few days ago trying to use their laptop at home over WiFi for work.

If this is you then there are two problems that I suggest you look at:

1) Make sure your WiFi modem is close to where you are working. Ideally, it should be in your view, construction, e.g. cupboards, doors, etc. and distance will reduce your WiFi speeds.
2) If your WiFi modem is old, it may need replacement. Technology has moved on. If the modem is fine, but the WiFi needs help, consider instead of a new modem, going to mesh WIFI. You get boxes like this which plugs into your modem and handles the WiFi.

These you place around the shop to improve the WIFI signal, so you tend to get better speeds as well as less dead zones.  Plus you get a more extended range. 

With our point of sale, there is a range of solutions for remote working. There are many advantages to doing so for one thing it saves time. You do not have to travel to work to get the information you require, and you can work whenever. The other now is that it increases social distance.

Also, it may be very useful now to set up cloud computing or VPN because if you have staff that can work from home, I am sure that they will appreciate it too.

We all this virus running around, I think many of you are going to find that many schools, suppliers and others are going to be using video conferencing rather than sending people out. Besides being more time effective and cheaper, it also means less social contact.

For most of them, your smartphone is fine, most laptops have an inbuilt camera and microphones already set up. I prefer the laptop as its a bigger picture.

If you wish to use a computer you need to purchase a Webcam and Mic which will clip onto your computer and allows you to see on video and chat face-to-face over the Internet in real-time. 

* Although I suggest that you make sure its resolution on standard is at least 640 pixels by 480 pixels nowadays for very little more you can get a high definition (HD) video, with 1,600 pixels by 1,200 pixels so I would say an HD.  

* The higher the megapixels the better. 

* Look at the frames per second (fps),  lower fps rates will create problems including jumpy videos with out-of-sync audio. I would recommend looking at nothing less than 30 but more is better. Over 60 fps its overkill.

* I find built-in microphones better than headsets. It is less restrictive.

* Low-light sensitivity can be very useful as often we tend on my computer to work in low light so the light is often not the best

* You need a decent internet connection speed but most of us have that now anyway. 

Does not matter how fast the internet goes, we all want more speed.

No two places are the same.

The problem is that today we have in Australia seven different nbn connections and your internet speed depends on what connection you do have, how many people are on the internet in your area and the distance that you are to the fibre cable.  Now it is slowly getting to be only fibre as most of the copper is gone. 

If you want to know what type of internet connection you actually have and your options click here.

If you want to test your internet speed click here.

As a rule, I would say that a modern business needs a broadband download speed of 40Mbps (megabits per second). What you need to check is a few times in the day as it changes eg morning, lunchtime and evening.

We had a client that tested their connection and then they complained. It was discovered that some of the internet wiring was corroded, and once that was fixed the problem went away.  So it pays to check.

Point of sale systems is excellent, till something goes wrong. Then for some reason, people seem to lose all sense of reason and proportion. The fact is that they are all mechanical devices and all of the parts will sooner or later fail and everything will be replaced. I know we run a comparatively big computer repair business.

If your computer or one its components are not working or acting very strange. Here is a simple checklist you should try before doing anything.

1) The first question to ask yourself, is it used to work, what has changed now? If you can think of that something, check that. 

2) Make sure that nothing is stuck down, and it looks like it should work, is the computer keyboard keys stuck, is the paper free on the printer if the printer is the problem, etc. Try to isolate the problem to find *the problem*.

3) Switch off the part and wait a minute, use the time to take some deep breaths. Now switch it on and test it. 

If that does not fix it, try switching off everything the computer and the part, wait a minute and then switch them on again and test it.  

4) If that does not fix it, check the cables from the part to the computer, check the cables to the part/computer, often the problem is a cable is not incorrectly. They are loose and then came out a bit.

Check the connections of the wires, if they are not firmly in, that may be the problem. Give them a push.

5) Even if you have not found anything here, I would suggest that you turn everything off and wait for a minute and try again, sometimes a miracle happens, and it works.

By now, I would say about 3/4 of all problems are solved but if you are now and it is still a problem, well the reality is that there are numerous ways that your system can break down and malfunction and it depends on your level of computer skill on how much you can fix.

If you have the time and you want to get hands dirty you can put the problem into Google, and ask for some troubleshooting assistance be careful even with an experienced technician, the challenge and expenses can quickly snowball. 

If the problem is still there, then its time to give us a call or your hardware supporter. If so note:

What exactly is the error
If possible write down the errors or take a photo of the error.

How do you get the error
The hardware engineer first instincts will be to try to reproduce the error in his mind. So how did it happen? Was there anything happening when the error appeared, does it come and go, etc 

Make sure you have a backup