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SCW has been serving the Spokane Valley area since 1997, providing IT Support such as helpdesk support, computer support, and technical consulting to small and medium-sized businesses.

Sam is a network engineer with a broad range of experience spanning more than 35 years. He wrote is first piece of code in 1979 and has been involved with the industry ever since. For the last 20 years, he has worked for SCW Consulting where he has embraced his passion for network technology and security.

Does a Touchscreen Make Sense on a Computer?

Does a Touchscreen Make Sense on a Computer?

Human beings are tactile animals, from the very beginning of our lives, we learn and interact through touch in a major way. This may explain why touchscreens exploded in popularity so quickly once the necessary technology was finessed. However, are we trying to put touchscreens in places where they don’t make sense? Do we really need a touchscreen on our computer?

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Are You Ready for More of the IoT in 2019?

Are You Ready for More of the IoT in 2019?

The Internet of Things has verifiably exploded in popularity in almost every conceivable fashion, as was more or less expected before 2018. What can we expect from the IoT in 2019? We’ve compiled a few predictions.

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Tip of the Week: The Basics of Evernote

Tip of the Week: The Basics of Evernote

With smartphones being so well suited to productivity and on-the-go organization, it’s little wonder that they have become a great tool for note-taking. One application in particular, Evernote, was designed with many features focused toward this very task. For this week’s tip, we’ll review some of the reasons that Evernote is a stand-out note-taking tool.

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Can You Use Your Smartphone to Work Effectively?

Can You Use Your Smartphone to Work Effectively?

You’d be hard-pressed to find a better productivity device than a smartphone, but the fact remains that while it’s a great tool to get more work done, its nature as a communication device makes it a prime target for wasting time. We’ll discuss some of the best ways your organization can take advantage of mobile technology while still remaining as productive as possible with it.

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It May Sound Loony, But Internet Deliverability is Expanding

It May Sound Loony, But Internet Deliverability is Expanding

Believe it or not, the Internet we rely on so much is only accessible by half of the world today. It can be hard to grasp, considering the effectively-constant access that we have, but more than three and a half billion people in the world lack the means to access any of it. However, Google started to change that years ago, when it created an R&D facility known as Google X.

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Intro to Your Tech: The Blue Screen of Death

Intro to Your Tech: The Blue Screen of Death

If someone has spent any time around a computer, they will have (at least anecdotally) become familiar with the dreaded BSoD - the Blue Screen of Death. This fatal error has been the cause of much lost productivity and expensive support calls over the years, but despite its notoriety, not many know why it happens at all. That’s precisely what we’ll cover below, along with a few ways to diagnose the root problem.

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Where Does All That Lost Data Go?

Where Does All That Lost Data Go?

The facts are that data is lost, data is stolen, and you have no idea where it has gone. You may come to find out where subsequently, but many times, personal information isn’t much like a cat: once it goes away, you’ll likely never see it again. Today, we will look at the seedy underbelly of the Internet in search of our lost and stolen personally identifiable information.

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Comparing Physical and Virtual Servers

Comparing Physical and Virtual Servers

Every IT infrastructure needs a server to ensure that information is spread properly throughout the network. However, while servers were once tied to the business’ location, now they are also able to be virtualized in a cloud solution. This brings forth the question: which is better for your business’ needs? Let’s determine that by comparing and contrasting these two server options.

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Tip of the Week: Don’t Waste Capital In the Cloud

Tip of the Week: Don’t Waste Capital In the Cloud

The cloud has transformed the way people work; and, as a result people rely on it for more than ever. Some businesses have all their computing resources in the cloud, while many others utilize it for software as a service, communication tools, and other major parts of their business’ IT. The more businesses start relying on cloud-hosted computing resources, the more these cloud resources are being wasted. Since they come at a premium price, businesses are beginning to discover that they are wasting money on their cloud.

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Sexy Scam Relies on Your Belief that Someone Was Watching

Sexy Scam Relies on Your Belief that Someone Was Watching

Internet scams are major threats to individuals and business because all it takes is one wrong click of the mouse and a user is embroiled in an unenviable situation. One such scam that is happening today is designed to catch users with their pants down, so to speak.

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How Exactly Is the GDPR Working to Incorporate Blockchain?

How Exactly Is the GDPR Working to Incorporate Blockchain?

Now that the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)--the most comprehensive individual data protection law in history--has gone into effect, it is important to know where your business stands in regard to your potential liability. One technology that has a rather lot of ambiguity surrounding it is blockchain, which is essentially an encrypted and distributed digital ledger. How is the development of blockchain, which is built on the idea of security through transparency, going to fare under the guidelines of the new GDPR regulations?

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Intro to Your Tech: Software as a Service

Intro to Your Tech: Software as a Service

The public cloud is a massive industry with around $150 billion in annual revenues. Nearly half of that revenue is tied up in software as a service which has grown by about 20 percent a year for the past five years, and now makes up for over a third of all applications used in the world. Today, we will take a look at software as a service (SaaS) and why you should consider it, if you don’t use it already.

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Checking In On the Future of Medical Technology

Checking In On the Future of Medical Technology

One of the most important parts of the medical field is maintaining efficiency and data access for both its patients and medical professionals. It’s not a surprise that the best way to achieve this is through medical technology solutions--a specialized field of IT solutions that is showing incredible growth, particularly in recent years. We’ll go over a couple of predictions we have concerning the future of medical IT, including how the field will grow and what methods will be adopted.

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Three Chilling Data Loss Stats to Consider

Three Chilling Data Loss Stats to Consider

A justifiable fear drives the data backup market. With all the emerging threats coming from the web, it’s hard to imagine that any company that uses the web for more than just email wouldn’t have a strategy in place to quickly replace lost data. A high percentage of small businesses fail as a result of data-loss incidents so when it comes to the continuity of your business, how you recover your data can be as important as protecting it in the first place.

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Intro to Your Tech: Digital Twin

Intro to Your Tech: Digital Twin

It’s a scene familiar from many science fiction movies: a simulation pulled up on a screen, the effects of some proposed action being predicted and demonstrated, telling the heroes that their plan just might work. As it happens, this kind of process is no longer relegated to the sci-fi genre, and is used practically in many industries. Here, we’ll discuss the phenomenon of the digital twin.

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3 Reports Every Business Should Run Consistently

3 Reports Every Business Should Run Consistently

The analysis of data is important for every business. Some data is more important than others, but ultimately, if you want your business to thrive you will want to know exactly how your business is doing so that you can make educated decisions that won’t waste your organization's time and money. Today, we will look at three reports that every business, no matter what size or what industry it operates in, should be running.

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Are Smartphones Getting Any Smarter? Not Really.

Are Smartphones Getting Any Smarter? Not Really.

Have you noticed that the difference between this year’s latest and greatest smartphone isn’t much different than the one you shelled out big bucks for last year? You aren’t alone.

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Tip of the Week: Adding a Watermark to a Word Document

Tip of the Week: Adding a Watermark to a Word Document

If you need to make something very clear about a document, adding a watermark to it is an excellent route to take. Microsoft Word 2016 (if you have Office 365, this applies too) makes it especially easy to do so. For this week’s tip, we’ll review the process of adding a watermark to your Word documents.

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The Nigelthorn Malware is a Lot Less Friendly than its Namesake

The Nigelthorn Malware is a Lot Less Friendly than its Namesake

You can never be too careful about what you install on your computers. In this most recent example, Google Chrome users are finding themselves targeted by a new type of malware called Nigelthorn.

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Intro to Your Tech: Plug-In

Intro to Your Tech: Plug-In

Ahh, the Internet. It’s an incredible tool that helps people all over the world get work done on a daily basis. It’s often thought of as a tool to achieve a means, but like any other tool, it works best alongside others just like it. Plug-ins are additional ways that web-based applications and software solutions help make your use of them even better.

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