#1. Add Memory. One of the most inexpensive and effective ways to improve a computer’s performance is to install more RAM (random access memory). This will speed up the applications installed on your computer and allow you to open and run more programs simultaneously.

#2. Upgrade The Processor Or Add A Graphics Accelerator. If you are just looking for a little more “zoom,” upgrading the processor or installing a graphics accelerator will give your computer the ability to process information faster and improve its overall speed.

#3. Perform Regular Maintenance On Your Servers and Desktops. Computers, like cars, need regular maintenance to perform at top speed and reliability. At a minimum, you should run ScanDisk and the Disk Defrag Utility on your machines once a month. This will make your applications and files load and run faster.

#4. Run A Spyware Scan Once A Week. One telltale sign that your computer is infected with spyware is slow, unstable performance. Spyware sucks up your system’s resources to carry out its evil intent, slowing down your computer and even causing it to freeze and crash.

#5. Disable Or Remove Unnecessary Programs Running In The Background. Many computers have pre-installed software programs that use up system resources and slow down your computer.

     While these recommendations will certainly speed up your system, they aren’t a miracle cure for a seriously out-of-date computer network. If your computer or network constantly crashes, freezes up, or runs painfully slow, then it’s time to give us a call for an upgrade.

According to the Literacy Company and Evelyn Wood Reading Dynamics

• Over 50 percent of NASA employees are dyslexic. They are actually sought after by the organization because they have superb problem- solving skills.

• More than 20 percent of adults read at or below the fifth-grade level; this is well below what they need to earn a living wage.

• Nearly three out of five prison inmates are illiterate.

• Eighty-five percent of all juvenile offenders have reading problems.

• More than 75 percent of those on welfare are illiterate.

• Over 1 million children drop out of school every year.

• About 50 percent of America’s unemployed youths are functionally illiterate, meaning they can’t carry out simple tasks like balancing a checkbook or reading drug labels.

• Forty-four million American adults are poor readers or “functionally illiterate.”

• Twenty-one million Americans can’t read at all; one-fifth of high school graduates can’t read their diplomas.

• One-third of high school graduates never read another book for the rest of their lives.

• Forty-two percent of college graduates never read another book.

• Seventy percent of Americans haven’t visited a bookstore in five or more years.

• Fifty-seven percent of new books are not read to completion.

To show how much we love our clients this Valentine’s Day, we’re giving away our Super Value Service Call for only $99! This service call includes a 27-point Problem Prevention Audit designed to:

• Detect and remove hidden spyware
• Check your privacy settings and network security
• Speed up your computer and network
• Block annoying pop-up ads
• Check for system errors, conflicts, or other problems
• Verify your system backups

Call 919-369-7800 Before Valentine's Day to schedule this special!

The marketplace for business insurance is still a bit "soft" - and that's good news for business owners and managers. Simply stated, a "softer market" means the price of most types of commercial insurance is holding steady or showing only modest increases or sometimes even declining.

When this type of "soft market" occurs, underwriters - those mysterious folks at the insurance companies who determine your renewal premiums - are more likely to give free coverage enhancements or "add- ons" to keep your business.

General Liability Endorsements That Increase Your Protection

Your General Liability policy provides two limits of protection - a "per occurrence limit" and an "aggregate limit." If you have a $1,000,000 per occurrence limit and a $2,000,000 aggregate limit, your policy will pay up to $1,000,000 for each covered lawsuit, but never more than $2,000,000 for the policy period - that's the aggregate.
During a soft market, your insurance company may be open to providing higher limits of protection by using one of two endorsements. The type of business you're in determines which endorsement works for you.

. Aggregate Limits of Liability Per Location - If your business involves multiple stores, factories or other locations, this is the endorsement for you.
. Aggregate Limits of Liability Per Project - If you're a contractor and have multiple jobsites active at the same time, this is the endorsement for you.

How These Endorsements Work

Without one of these endorsements, your aggregate limit applies to all of your locations or jobsites combined. But with one of these endorsements in place, your aggregate limit applies separately to each of your locations or jobsites.

That means a $2,000,000 aggregate limit now becomes $2,000,000 per location or jobsite. If you have three locations or jobsites, this endorsement is providing you up to $6,000,000 of protection instead of only $2,000,000!

Plus, when a loss is paid at location #1, that loss reduces the remaining available protection for that location only. The aggregate limits for all your other locations or jobsites are unaffected.

How much do these endorsements cost? While not all insurance companies will offer these endorsements, those that do, offer them for a nominal charge and in a soft market they could even be free!

Admittedly, the odds of you ever needing this kind of multiplied protection are pretty slim. But then again, there are over 600,000 trial lawyers in this country and plenty of people who would take you for everything you have if given the chance. It may be worth looking into these endorsements to make your nights more restful.

For more information, contact Deb King at 919-878-3757

"People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel." - Maya Angelou

Satisfied customers will shop anywhere. Loyal customers will fight before they switch and proactively refer people to buy from you.

When a service professional is needed, do they think of you? How can you save time and stand out, away from the pack? How do the best of the best get even better, go from the top to being THE TOP?

Joe Girard, Guinness Book of World Records top salesman twelve years running, sold more cars and trucks than any other salesperson. More as an individual than most dealers’ sales totaled. How did he stand out?

Greeting cards. He sent out nearly 13,000 greeting cards per month to his customers, celebrating anything from Halloween to Groundhog Day.

Let us show you a better way to send cards-online, in your own handwriting. We can print, stuff, stamp and send for you, all for less than a buck. Let me show you how this customer loyalty program can explode your business.

Go to our website for a free demonstration of Send Out Cards or contact me to try it out with a free account and find out how to launch your customer retention program into OUTERSPACE.

“So we went to Atari and said, ‘Hey, we’ve got this amazing thing, even built with some of your parts, and what do you think about funding us? Or we’ll give it to you. We just want to do it. Pay our salary, we’ll come work for you.’ And they said, ‘No.’ So then we went to Hewlett-Packard, and they said, ‘Hey, we don’t need you. You haven’t even got through college yet.” - Apple Computer Inc. founder Steve Jobs on attempts to get Atari and HP interested in his and Steve Wozniak’s personal computer.

Each month we hope to give an update of this project.

Lone Wolf Takes a Ride on the “Rolling Road”

     Several members of the Insight Racing team (www.insightracing. org) are in Michigan this week working with Lotus Engineering on the Lone Wolf. The Lone Wolf is an autonomous vehicle which is planned to compete in the Urban Challenge, the newest Grand Challenge event.
     The Grand Challenge is a series of smart car races developed by the US Government Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to meet a congressional mandate that 1/3 of the military vehicles operate without human drivers or human intervention by 2015. The first 2 Grand Challenge races took place in the Mohave Desert in 2004 and 2005, respectively.
     The Urban Challenge is set to take place in a city environment in November 2007. The Lone Wolf and other contestants will drive in city conditions for up to 6 hours with no outside intervention whatsoever. The robotic vehicles will make decisions, drive on city streets, avoid obstacles, stop at intersections, maneuver traffic circles, park, pass traffic and interact with other traffic in the race.
     While at Lotus Engineering, the combined team plans to finish details of mounting some equipment, test some of the software used to control the vehicle, and test the vehicle on the rolling road where they can test the actual operation (while inside the building.) The rolling road is a device that allows full operation of the vehicle where the engine actually drives the tires on a surface that rolls. This allows testing computer controlled speed and braking, as well as simulated driving of a mission, while the car is in a static position.
     “Lotus Engineering is excited by Insight Racing’s progress towards solving the Urban Challenge,” said Don Graunstadt, Chief Executive Officer & President of Lotus Engineering. “We have a strong collaborative relationship which brings many types of engineering talents together in our Lotus Elise entry. Driving exciting technology leadership is the foundation of activities at Lotus Engineering.”
     “Led by Lotus, all of our partners have been enthusiastic contributors to this project. The success of collaborative efforts is due to the commitment of each participant and Lotus’ contribution has been first class,” said Grayson Randall, Insight Racing founder. “Already we can see how this smart vehicle technology will ultimately change how we drive in the not too distant future.”
     The Insight Racing team is a cooperative effort formed in 2003 to develop autonomous robotics solutions. The team is sponsored by NC State University and North Carolina businesses. The team includes several NC State University students, faculty and alumni.
     The Lone Wolf is expected to return to Raleigh in early February for full sensor mounting, further system integration and testing.
     Sponsors include: AVRC(Advanced Vehicle Research Center), Lotus Engineering, Insight Technologies, NC State University, Comtrol, Smith Anderson, SICK, Ascot Technologies, Inc., BD Micro, and PC MedEvac.

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     The Advanced Vehicle Research Center (AVRC) is a modern automotive testing facility for use in the design, development, testing and certification of advanced vehicle technologies, sub-systems and components. The Advanced Vehicle Research Center is a public-private partnership that matches the talents of multi-national automotive companies with those of North Carolina’s leading universities. The AVRC is world class and focused on next generation research and development in the automotive industry (www.avrnc.com).

     Lotus Engineering is an internationally recognized automotive engineering consultant based in Hethel, Norfolk, UK. Its global facilities include those in Michigan and North Carolina, USA and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and offices in Germany and China. It provides comprehensive and versatile consultancy services to many of the world's car manufacturers and tier one automotive suppliers, from initial concept and project design through development to full production prototype build.

     Insight Technologies is a North Carolina based robotics company formed to compete in the DARPA Grand Challenge events. (www.insightrobot s.com)

     North Carolina State University was founded as a land- grant institution in 1887. A nationally recognized leader in science and technology with historic strengths in agriculture and engineering, NC State provides a high- quality education in the humanities and social sciences, design, education, life sciences, management, natural resources, physical and mathematical sciences, textiles and veterinary medicine.