Introducing the new D Revolution Help Desk
D Revolution is proud to introduce a new web based Help Desk system.
All clients will be able to log in, submit a support request and track it's progress via the website and email.
This new system will allow companies to track how many support requests are made, how quickly they are acted on and most importantly, how fast the problem is resolved.
FAQ's (frequently asked questions) will be an important part of this system. Whenever a ticket is logged, a growing list of FAQ's will show questions and answers to similar helpdesk queries.
If you have tech support questions you want answered, email us and it will be added to the FAQ's.
Over time, we want this to be the first place anybody looks for help. You will be able to fix alot of issues BEFORE calling anybody!
The login page is at http://partners.drevolution.com.au/helpdesk and all connections are over a secure connection for your safety.
A follow up email will provide individual login details for each person. Please contact us if you dont receive the email.
Holiday Notice
A quick reminder that D Revolution is on holidays from Friday 12th December until Friday 19th December.
If you need work done, call soon a book a time.
Maintenance
The quiet time between mid December and mid January is the perfect time to complete IT projects that there simply isn't enough time for during the year.
Now is a good time to upgrade workstations, servers networks - especially in light of the falling Aussie dollar. Most suppliers are increasing prices by %15 to %25 before the end of the year.
Call us to arrange quotes and snap up equipment before the price rises.
Stay tuned for more information…
All services supplied by D Revolution are subject to a 10% GST, and include a Tax invoice.
Welcome to the blog of D Revolution. Sydney based supplier of consulting and training to the digital professional.
Sunday, 7 December 2008
Monday, 3 November 2008
Update and holiday
D Revolution is going through some exciting changes.
Firstly, we are looking at expanding.
We are going to be deploying and maintaining a few open source packages like;
ResourceSpace (a Digital Asset Management Program) - http://www.montala.net/resourcespace.php
GLPI (an Inventory Management interface for your hardware and software) - http://glpi-project.org/?lang=en
OCS (an inventory scanner used in conjunction with GLPI) - http://www.ocsinventory-ng.org/
These will be deployed as appliances built on on the excellent ReadyNAS Pro platform.
With one of these devices, you will be able have a very large file server (7.5TB), FTP server, iSCSI target for backup as well as a DAM for managing all your assets.
see - http://netgear.com.au/Products/Storage/ReadyNASPro.aspx
The ReadyNAS Pro is due to ship on 15 November.
Secondly, we are now offering a migration to Google Apps service.
We migrated to Google Apps 3 months ago as a trial for our clients and so far the system has been excellent.
Spam filtering is best in class - it is easily catching 1000+ spams per month per address with less that 10 spams per month getting through.
The online wordprocessor and spreadsheet is good enough for my needs which allows for sharing of data as well as offline access with Google Gears.
see - http://gears.google.com
All access is via either a https (secure connection) on the web or imaps/smtps (secure connection) inside of both Apple mail on the workstation or the iPhone mail client.
We can migrate your domain email away from your current provider to Google Apps.
This can be either the free service which comes with 200 email addresses each with 7.25GB of space or the paid version which comes with 90 day backups, support and 200 email accounts each with 25GB of space.
See the difference - http://www.google.com/apps/intl/en/business/editions.html
Call us to find out if it is right for you.
Lastly, our rates are due to rise.
We will be increasing our prices effective January 2009.
Our last rate increase was on July 2005.
The main reasons for the increase are inflation and travel costs.
The average cost has risen 50% since July 2005.
Our rate sheet as of January 1 2009 will be;
$165 per hour for our standard support service.
$135 for our pre-paid support service.
$135 per hour for remote support*
$200 per hour for training.
$90 per hour travel outside Sydney CBD
* For remote support, D Revolution will first have to implement a secure hardware VPN which means you need ADSL2 as well as compatible hardware.
Compatible hardware includes either the Netgear DG834G or DGFV338 ADSL2+ routers.
Call us for more information.
If you want to save money on support there are 2 options.
1. Buy some Bill Bill credits before the price rise.
2. Opt for remote support. If a problem can be fixed remotely overnight, you pay a reduced rate that also has a lower minimum time.
PUBLISHING NEWS
Adobe have released CS4.
see - http://www.adobe.com/ap/products/creativesuite/design/
With the new release, the big change is applying some photoshop filters is done via the GPU.
With a faster video card with 128MB or more of RAM, this will speed up some operations up to 1000%
Quark have released Xpress 8.
see - http://8.quark.com
The new release focuses on interface changes reminiscent of Macromedia Freehand.
Also QuarkXpress now works with .AI files as well as .PSD - a welcome addition.
There are also enhancements to job jacket to allow large teams to collaborate easier.
Extensis have released Universal Type Server.
see - http://www.extensis.com/en/products/universaltypeserverlite/what-is-it.jsp
This will allow organisations to sync font sets across machines as well as audit installed fonts etc…
Whilst most of my clients now use FontExplorer - it does have it's limitations.
Font Explorer can not replaces override system fonts, does not have temporary activation and has issues with mixed sets (postscript and truetype/opentype mixes together)
OEM partners finally deliver PDF Print Engine2 RIP's.
see - http://www.adobe.com/products/pdfprintengine/
For the last 20 years, the publishing industry has relied on PostScript as the language for RIP's.
This has become a bottleneck as Postscript does not understand transparency, ICC profiles etc…
Programs like QuarkXpress and Adobe Indesign both produce transparency and can embed ICC data, but this information had to be stripped or transformed during the RIP process. With the new RIP's, files can be sent through un-flattened with all the transparency in place - as well as make use of better compression with JPEG2000.
AGFA, FujiFilm, Kodak, SCREEN and Xanté all have PDF ready RIPS's.
Ask your printer if he is using PDF Print Engine2
GENERAL NEWS
For people sick of MYOB, there is now an online subscription solution that has been available in the UK and NZ for the last year and as of 30 September it is now available in Australia.
see - http://www.xero.com
The video tour is very impressive and iphone support looks like a winner.
I have started testing it over the last few weeks.
So far, it has performed very well and rather quickly considering it is hosted.
The only downside currently is the cost is $49 per month and that does not include any payroll.
If you are doing this manually, this wont be an issue.
I did find it could not import my chart of accounts from MYOB - it currently only imports from the NZ version.
After sorting out the chart of accounts and starting balances it as been very good.
Stay tuned for more information…
All services supplied by D Revolution are subject to a 10% GST, and include a Tax invoice.
If you have received this email in error, we apologise.
Please follow the link at the top of this email to unsubscribe.
Firstly, we are looking at expanding.
We are going to be deploying and maintaining a few open source packages like;
ResourceSpace (a Digital Asset Management Program) - http://www.montala.net/resourcespace.php
GLPI (an Inventory Management interface for your hardware and software) - http://glpi-project.org/?lang=en
OCS (an inventory scanner used in conjunction with GLPI) - http://www.ocsinventory-ng.org/
These will be deployed as appliances built on on the excellent ReadyNAS Pro platform.
With one of these devices, you will be able have a very large file server (7.5TB), FTP server, iSCSI target for backup as well as a DAM for managing all your assets.
see - http://netgear.com.au/Products/Storage/ReadyNASPro.aspx
The ReadyNAS Pro is due to ship on 15 November.
Secondly, we are now offering a migration to Google Apps service.
We migrated to Google Apps 3 months ago as a trial for our clients and so far the system has been excellent.
Spam filtering is best in class - it is easily catching 1000+ spams per month per address with less that 10 spams per month getting through.
The online wordprocessor and spreadsheet is good enough for my needs which allows for sharing of data as well as offline access with Google Gears.
see - http://gears.google.com
All access is via either a https (secure connection) on the web or imaps/smtps (secure connection) inside of both Apple mail on the workstation or the iPhone mail client.
We can migrate your domain email away from your current provider to Google Apps.
This can be either the free service which comes with 200 email addresses each with 7.25GB of space or the paid version which comes with 90 day backups, support and 200 email accounts each with 25GB of space.
See the difference - http://www.google.com/apps/intl/en/business/editions.html
Call us to find out if it is right for you.
Lastly, our rates are due to rise.
We will be increasing our prices effective January 2009.
Our last rate increase was on July 2005.
The main reasons for the increase are inflation and travel costs.
The average cost has risen 50% since July 2005.
Our rate sheet as of January 1 2009 will be;
$165 per hour for our standard support service.
$135 for our pre-paid support service.
$135 per hour for remote support*
$200 per hour for training.
$90 per hour travel outside Sydney CBD
* For remote support, D Revolution will first have to implement a secure hardware VPN which means you need ADSL2 as well as compatible hardware.
Compatible hardware includes either the Netgear DG834G or DGFV338 ADSL2+ routers.
Call us for more information.
If you want to save money on support there are 2 options.
1. Buy some Bill Bill credits before the price rise.
2. Opt for remote support. If a problem can be fixed remotely overnight, you pay a reduced rate that also has a lower minimum time.
PUBLISHING NEWS
Adobe have released CS4.
see - http://www.adobe.com/ap/products/creativesuite/design/
With the new release, the big change is applying some photoshop filters is done via the GPU.
With a faster video card with 128MB or more of RAM, this will speed up some operations up to 1000%
Quark have released Xpress 8.
see - http://8.quark.com
The new release focuses on interface changes reminiscent of Macromedia Freehand.
Also QuarkXpress now works with .AI files as well as .PSD - a welcome addition.
There are also enhancements to job jacket to allow large teams to collaborate easier.
Extensis have released Universal Type Server.
see - http://www.extensis.com/en/products/universaltypeserverlite/what-is-it.jsp
This will allow organisations to sync font sets across machines as well as audit installed fonts etc…
Whilst most of my clients now use FontExplorer - it does have it's limitations.
Font Explorer can not replaces override system fonts, does not have temporary activation and has issues with mixed sets (postscript and truetype/opentype mixes together)
OEM partners finally deliver PDF Print Engine2 RIP's.
see - http://www.adobe.com/products/pdfprintengine/
For the last 20 years, the publishing industry has relied on PostScript as the language for RIP's.
This has become a bottleneck as Postscript does not understand transparency, ICC profiles etc…
Programs like QuarkXpress and Adobe Indesign both produce transparency and can embed ICC data, but this information had to be stripped or transformed during the RIP process. With the new RIP's, files can be sent through un-flattened with all the transparency in place - as well as make use of better compression with JPEG2000.
AGFA, FujiFilm, Kodak, SCREEN and Xanté all have PDF ready RIPS's.
Ask your printer if he is using PDF Print Engine2
GENERAL NEWS
For people sick of MYOB, there is now an online subscription solution that has been available in the UK and NZ for the last year and as of 30 September it is now available in Australia.
see - http://www.xero.com
The video tour is very impressive and iphone support looks like a winner.
I have started testing it over the last few weeks.
So far, it has performed very well and rather quickly considering it is hosted.
The only downside currently is the cost is $49 per month and that does not include any payroll.
If you are doing this manually, this wont be an issue.
I did find it could not import my chart of accounts from MYOB - it currently only imports from the NZ version.
After sorting out the chart of accounts and starting balances it as been very good.
Stay tuned for more information…
All services supplied by D Revolution are subject to a 10% GST, and include a Tax invoice.
If you have received this email in error, we apologise.
Please follow the link at the top of this email to unsubscribe.
Thursday, 1 May 2008
Upcoming Anniversary
D Revolution is turning 10!
July 1 1998, D Revolution was born out of the smouldering ashes as my role of publishing support for Australia for QuarkXpress, Freehand and several PrePress tools at Mitsui Computers.
It has been an exciting 10 years of continual learning and refining the craft of publishing support.
From my first client at SNAP Printing Rockdale to my most recent at an unnamed law firm, I thank all of you for your ongoing support.
In the lead up to the anniversary, D Revolution is reducing prices.
10 years - 10% discount. From today till 30 June 2008, prices are reduced to $135 per hour.
If want to keep saving money, we have had for several years a bulk bill scheme.
You buy 20+ hours in advance at $120 per hour and use them as needed. These credits do not expire.
As most people have experienced, publishing has taken quite a sudden downturn. Whilst these are trying times, it is often the only time major internal changes can be made. No one wants to deal with new systems under a crush of job deadlines.
If you are planning on upgrades, take the opportunity to roll them out before June 30 so you can depreciate it in this years tax.
D Revolution can help on developing the solution, getting quotes, implementing and then maintaining.
We can organise quotes through either Proton Digital or Computers Now and we often test new equipment direct with distributors.
As a case in point, I recently completed testing of iSCSI storage systems from DLINK and iStor for use with Apple workstations and servers.
These storage systems allow you to connect direct over the network at high speed. They are half the price of Apple Promise RAID and offer the same performance.
Use these with SAN software and you have a fast, cheap, scalable storage system to handle future growth.
Stay tuned for more information…
All services supplied by D Revolution are subject to a 10% GST, and include a Tax invoice.
If you have received this email in error, we apologise.
Our mail-out database needed rebuilding and I had to scrape email addresses from previous correspondence.
Please follow the link at the top of this email to unsubscribe.
July 1 1998, D Revolution was born out of the smouldering ashes as my role of publishing support for Australia for QuarkXpress, Freehand and several PrePress tools at Mitsui Computers.
It has been an exciting 10 years of continual learning and refining the craft of publishing support.
From my first client at SNAP Printing Rockdale to my most recent at an unnamed law firm, I thank all of you for your ongoing support.
In the lead up to the anniversary, D Revolution is reducing prices.
10 years - 10% discount. From today till 30 June 2008, prices are reduced to $135 per hour.
If want to keep saving money, we have had for several years a bulk bill scheme.
You buy 20+ hours in advance at $120 per hour and use them as needed. These credits do not expire.
As most people have experienced, publishing has taken quite a sudden downturn. Whilst these are trying times, it is often the only time major internal changes can be made. No one wants to deal with new systems under a crush of job deadlines.
If you are planning on upgrades, take the opportunity to roll them out before June 30 so you can depreciate it in this years tax.
D Revolution can help on developing the solution, getting quotes, implementing and then maintaining.
We can organise quotes through either Proton Digital or Computers Now and we often test new equipment direct with distributors.
As a case in point, I recently completed testing of iSCSI storage systems from DLINK and iStor for use with Apple workstations and servers.
These storage systems allow you to connect direct over the network at high speed. They are half the price of Apple Promise RAID and offer the same performance.
Use these with SAN software and you have a fast, cheap, scalable storage system to handle future growth.
Stay tuned for more information…
All services supplied by D Revolution are subject to a 10% GST, and include a Tax invoice.
If you have received this email in error, we apologise.
Our mail-out database needed rebuilding and I had to scrape email addresses from previous correspondence.
Please follow the link at the top of this email to unsubscribe.
Sunday, 20 January 2008
Holiday Notice
D Revolution is is taking a short holiday.
As of 21 Jan I will be in Queensland hopefuly working on my tan in MovieWorld, SeaWorld etc…
I will be back on deck first thing Monday morning 28 Jan.
Obviously I will be unavailble for onsite work during this period, but will still be checking my emails and voice mails and responding as promptly as possible.
If you need onsite help, or faster response than I can provide, I have asked Geoff Johnson to respond in my absence.
Please call him on 0411 523 166 to schedule an appointment.
Stay tuned for more information…
All services supplied by D Revolution are subject to a 10% GST, and include a Tax invoice.
If you have received this email in error, we apologise.
Please follow the link at the top of this email to unsubscribe.
As of 21 Jan I will be in Queensland hopefuly working on my tan in MovieWorld, SeaWorld etc…
I will be back on deck first thing Monday morning 28 Jan.
Obviously I will be unavailble for onsite work during this period, but will still be checking my emails and voice mails and responding as promptly as possible.
If you need onsite help, or faster response than I can provide, I have asked Geoff Johnson to respond in my absence.
Please call him on 0411 523 166 to schedule an appointment.
Stay tuned for more information…
All services supplied by D Revolution are subject to a 10% GST, and include a Tax invoice.
If you have received this email in error, we apologise.
Please follow the link at the top of this email to unsubscribe.
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