Author Archives: Mary Hester

About Mary Hester

My journey has taken me many places I never imagined - from a family driving school business, to a dairy farm, to an engineering degree, to parenting two teenage girls. My first position after completing my electrical engineering degree was at Commonwealth Edison in transmission line design. After returning to Atlanta, I accepted a temporary position as a support engineer at Advanced Control Systems. It was a 3-month contract that lasted 10 years and I was promoted to department manager at ACS.. Now at LAN Systems, I still devote myself to providing support without compromise. My goal is to make LAN Systems known to all as the best IT Solutions and Service provider in the metro Atlanta area. Still committed to providing exceptional support that serves the needs of the people that use technology, I work with our engineers to improve their problem solving and interpersonal skills. In addition to my responsibilities with LAN Systems, I volunteer with several non-profits that serve the electric utility industry and introduce engineering as a career to young people.Technology is almost as awesome as people and look forward to exploring many “technology for the people” topics at AtlantaSmall.biz.

It’s a jungle out there – be smart online

Recently, I posted a job on craigslist for a senior systems and network engineer.  Although craigslist is a popular site, I have never used it and had some concerns about posting on a site that had received so much bad … Continue reading

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Why does China want your gmail account?

Google is certain that the  latest hacking attempt comes from Jinan, China as a phishing scam to obtain gmail passwords. This type of attack happens all the time, but since senior level US government officials, military personnel and political activists … Continue reading

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It is important and easy to keep your Windows System updated

In order to prevent attacks, you have to keep your computer updated. Protect your system by investing the time to update Windows; it is quick and easy.  Most infections are preventable and occur because of unpatched security holes.  Don’t let … Continue reading

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Clouds in an Azure Sky

Clouds are made of increased bandwidth and storage blended with the advances in virtualization and remote access. Today’s technology allows us to compute anywhere, anytime. The sky is clear blue for cloud computing, but it hasn’t always been that way. … Continue reading

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Get In Touch With Your Creative Side Using Microsoft Office

Not that long ago, the only way to get high-quality, professional materials was through a graphic designer.  Printing was a complicated, expensive process that was left to the print shops.  Each project required assembling pictures, graphics and content that was … Continue reading

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How to Protect Your Computer Against Malware

Each year the damages from computer malware cost US businesses billions of dollars. These costs are not only in lost productivity, but permanent loss of critical business data. Arguably, most if not all infections are preventable with the proper understanding, … Continue reading

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Microsoft Office 2010: The best new features in PowerPoint

For anyone that has ever presented to a group, you know it is essential to be well prepared and have the right props.  For many, PowerPoint is the prop of choice. Creating your presentation in PowerPoint allows you to gather all your thoughts … Continue reading

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Top Technology Trends for 2011

Top IT Trends for Atlanta Small Business in 2011

Compiling our list of the top technology trends for 2011 was enjoyable. We got to review our 2010 predictions and look ahead with optimism. Unfortunately, economic woes continued through 2010 delaying the expected IT expenditures and slowing growth.  Again, the trends … Continue reading

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Living on the Edge with Your Data Backup and Recovery Strategy?

Is your Atlanta Small Business Living on the Edge with Your Data Backup and Recovery Strategy?

One of the biggest risks you can take is not backing up your data.  Sure, you may never experience a disk failure, but if you do it will be a disaster.  Ask anyone who has suffered a data loss and … Continue reading

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Imagine a World With Less Spam

spam

With the arrest of Oleg Nikolaenko, the young Russian responsible for billions of spam messages each day, the world is wondering what it would be like with one-third less spam. There are over 250 billion email messages sent each day. … Continue reading

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