CST News

What a busy month! We have been incredibly busy trying to appoint a replacement manager at ProSouth in Dunedin. Some of you will be aware that our previous manager left us about 3 months ago and a long, drawn out process ensued but finally we made an appointment. However we had real difficulty deciding between the last four candidates. Any of the four would have done a fine job of managing the business. In the finish we chose Jon Connelly from the UK as our manager. He is a live wire and will add a whole new dimension to the business.

It has been bitterly cold too – snow and frosts seem much worse latterly. Hopefully it will be good for the garden though.

Sue and I thought about heading away for the last weekend but put it off in view of the forecast. We are pleased we did. I cannot see any point in driving two or three hours to sit and watch the snow out the window. We can do that from here for nothing! However we did get to Dunedin and spent some time with the grandchildren. I will not bore you with the details but such a pleasure to spend time with the kids (and their mums and dads too of course).

I have just checked the long range forecast for Saturday and Sunday – guess what!! Snow again to 400 metres. Maybe we will have another weekend at home.

A Vision From The Past

Sue wrote this piece after reflecting on a visit we had to Dunedin about 20 years ago to look at this new thing called the internet!! It bears a little reflecting on, How much have we become dependent on the internet in such a short time?

Just over 20 years ago, we went to Efficient Software in Dunedin to see the internet in action. Sue wrote in her journal “went to look at Internet. I’m not impressed.” Tony was impressed though, as was Mark Johnstone, and so Mark set up 4 dial-up modems in Balclutha. That meant that at any one time, only 4 people in Balclutha could be on the internet. People didn’t stay on for long, as the speed was half of what current dial-up speed is.  Of course, it also tied up your phone line. Back then very few people had mobiles so landlines were the main method of communication.

There was no Google or Facebook or genealogy websites. Not many people even owned computers. Anyone who still has an @es.co.nz  email address was an early internet user. Essential Software was bought out early on by ihug, who in turn were bought by Vodafone about 10 years ago.

It’s hard now to imagine a world without handheld-devices, facebook, texting and mobile phones. I wonder what the next 20 years will bring.

Windows 10

All the reports we have had have been pretty positive. The only negative has been the bandwidth used during the upgrade.

We would however still stand by our initial advice to hold fire for a while and let others sort out what will be the inevitable few glitches.

The other question we are asked is “What will the cost be to upgrade this time next year?” The simple answer is “Who knows?”

This link is done by people who seem to be in the know about these sorts of things and even they do not know. But the article is worth a brief read – maybe some clues there.

Exciting New Product To Our Range

We recently had a guy from one of our suppliers drop in to see us with a product that may interest some of our customers. These products are the Panasonic range of tough devices – yes they are called tough!

These devices are specially manufactured to withstand the hardest conditions and still provide the service some users demand from their devices:

• Mag alloy chassis protects against drops from 1.2m to 1.8m depending on model
• Shock mounted solid state or hard drive
• Toughened LCD screen
• Humidity and water resistant
• Withstand temperature range -10C to +50C
• Easy to view screen even in bright sunlight

As well Panasonic even produce a toughpad – let me see where the other “pad” in the market will perform in conditions where this one excels.

These are NOT cheap devices but they are good and will work pretty near anywhere.

Look at this website and scroll down to the box labelled Rugged Mobility.

Dance Routine

Once again Facebook has come up with an item which just blows me away. I am not normally into old style dance routines but these girls are AMAZING – strength and flexibility just unbelievable.

Do You Want To Save Over $200?

We were notified recently of an increase in Hewlett Packard prices. This is as a result of the drop in the New Zealand dollar and other things too I guess. What it means however is that our most common laptop sale is due to increase from $1029.25 inc GST to $1259.25 inc GST.

I have one left at the old price. It will be a case of first in, first served to save $230.00. Where can you get a better deal than that?

Oops

Someone is not having a good day!

Laser Printer For Sale

The new manager in Dunedin is on a tidy-up binge and has asked me to get rid of this Kyocera laser printer. We used to use it as a loan printer but Jon wants to clear the space.

We have a large number of customers now who are running two printers – a laser because it is much cheaper to run and the colour inkjet for when the final copy is needed. We can set the laser to be the default printer so that when the kids hit File, Print, the cost is not over the moon. Then when the final good copy is needed, flick to the good colour printer. Easy.

Kyocera FS 1041

• This has printed only 445 pages!
• Print speed up to 20 pages per minute
• 250 sheet paper tray
• USB connection to computer.
• Sold originally for $189.00

Running costs

The toner cartridge for this printer is rated at 1600 pages and retails for $109.00 inc GST. This is equal to under 7 cents per page printing cost. What other home printer has a lower cost per page than this?

We will sell this for $100 – once again, first in, first served.