May 26th, 2010
We have recently released a new version of our software package for plumbers, electricians, maintenance contractors (in fact all service industry companies). If you would like to try it, head over to www.softedgesolutions.co.za where you can download you free trial version
A little bit about the system:
Version 1 grew out of a need for a well-designed job card system made specifically for the service industry (in this case maintenance plumbing). The primary focus of any service-oriented business is to have a record of all jobs done for clients, to be able to track the progress of those jobs as they are happening, and to be able to call up that information in real time when needed. The power of having all your jobs, clients and related information at the touch of a button has proven to be a necessity for those companies already using our software.
Imagine being able to call up all jobs done for a client simply by asking the client for their surname, phone number, ID number, or any information that was originally captured on that client when the job was done. This will seem second nature to anyone who has used a decent client relations software package in the past, but the fact is there are still many companies that operate their business from a paper-based filing system or simply use a spreadsheet system for capturing job information on the computer. These companies know the hassle of trying to pull up records for a client while they are waiting on the phone, manually capturing all their job cards into their accounting package and trying to draw statistics from their jobs. This is where we step in.
Plumber’s Assistant is a complete job logging and tracking system, incorporating reporting and statistics on all aspects of your business. The system also promotes contact between you and your client with built in e-mail, fax and SMS services, as well as providing an easy-to-use export and import process that allows it to talk to your accounting system and any other system where your data may reside.
Thanks for reading our blog
Tags: assistant, buy, card, computer, development, Edge, email, Industry, invoice, invoices, job, marketing, P.A., Package, plumber, plumber's, quote, quotes, reporting, reports, schedule jobs, Service, SMS, Soft, Software, Solutions, text, track, try, version, websites
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August 7th, 2009
As an avid gamer I have been playing computer games for the past 15 years or so. I vividly remember days spent on my 486 playing Warcraft II wondering how a game could possibly be more enjoyable. I guess I have always been drawn to strategy games the most, I don’t know what it is, maybe just an urge to try every possible approach to beating a computer. Anyway, it is far more exciting than chess.
Over the years though, there have only been 3 strategy games that have really kept me playing more months on end. Firstly, Starcraft. It was about 5 years ahead of its time with strategies still in use in today’s popular games. For example, who can forget the irritation of playing as Protoss and being on the receiving end of a Zerg rush 5 minutes into the game or as the Protoss, using the Arbiter Tribunal to cloak 4 reavers and leave them waiting for intruders at the entrance to your base. Still the most balanced game I have ever played, it was truly up to your skill and there could be no excuses when you lost.
Secondly, Command and Conquer Generals. If this game had a crowning moment it would be the instant when you blew your opponents power to smitherines using your nuke and rushed into his base with every last unit you had. There were so many ways to conquer your enemy. One of my favourites was simply camping in your base and trying to destroy your enemies income source. It was the first strategy game I played where you could generate your own resources without having defend those pesky mines.
Then of course comes Company of Heroes and most importantly the latest release: Tales of Valor. Never before has defeating your enemy been such a mammoth but addictive task. Never mind collecting ore, all you need to do is secure points and the resources will come rolling in. This game focuses heavily on micro management of individual units. Not something that I usually enjoy but in this case most of your units can take care of themselves. This is as close as I can imagine it is like being a general in WWII. Set up your men in their positions, capture territory and defend it from the enemy. The downside of this game though is that in Tales of Valor the team the British will always win if you give them enough time to set up. This is done by using a little upgrade called overlord, which allows their artillary to fire on a given location every time enemy movement is detected. Unfair? Not if you enjoy playing as the Brits. All-in-all I can’t remember ever having enjoyed a strategy game this much. Every time I play I constantly find out new techniques and I have been playing for several months already. Besides, nothing beats beats blowing up a bridge occupied by a group of Panzer tanks
So, is Company of Heroes: Tales of Valor the best strategy game ever? Until Starcraft II it very well might be
Tags: best strategy game, C&C, COH, comapy of heroes, command and conquer, computer game, generals, Starcraft, strategy, Tales of valor, TOV
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May 21st, 2009
Spyware. Pesky, annoying and sometimes very dangerous. We have all encountered the situation where we suddenly have a popup on our web browser warning us that our PC is infected and that for only $39 we can order a program that will remove these infections for us. For those who might not know, this is the latest tactic from the underground developers of Spyware. Will purchasing this software remove the infection. Of course not. The software is the infection itself, cleverly designed to fool those most PC users
So what do you do if you get one of these popups, or your PC starts behaving strangely in other ways? Believe it or not, all the software you need is freely available on the Internet. As an IT technician, I have 3 programs I use to remove Spyware and it is 99% effective.
No1: Malwarebyte’s Anti-malware (available from http://malwarebytes.org) is a free (for personal use) program that automatically removes most Spyware on your PC
No2: Spybot Search and Destroy (available from http://www.safer-networking.org) is another free program that searches your for known spyware patterns and removes them
No3: AVG Free Edition (available from http://free.avg.com) is a free antivirus program just to make sure that spyware didn’t drop any trojans while it was working it’s way through your PC
In order to remove any Spyware successfully you just need to follow these simple steps:
- Turn off system restore (right click on my computer and click properties. Go to the system restore tab and select the turn off system restore check box. Click OK)
- Restart your PC in safe mode (restart and press F8 just before the Windows logo appears - Select start in safe mode)
- Install (and update) Malwarebyte’s Anti-malware, Spybot and AVG
- Run Malwarebyte’s Anti-malware and allow it to complete it’s scan and remove any threats found (if it requires a restart ignore it)
- Run Spybot and allow it to complete it’s scan and remove any threats found (if it requires a restart ignore it)
- Run a scan using AVG Free
- Restart your PC and repeat steps 4 - 6.
This should be effective in 99% of the cases
Tags: avg, avg free, malware, malwarebytes, spybot, spyware, spyware removal
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