Yesterday I brought you Elizabeth Bowman’s tips on inbox management, here’s what she has to say about messages themselves:

Put a hooking key statement in the subject line. First impressions matter! And be specific– don’t send messages with subjects like QUESTION, IMPORTANT, or PLEASE RESPOND without including something specific.

If the entirety of your message can be conveyed by a subject line, do so! Just be sure to end the line with EOM (”end of message”). It’s like the e-mail equivalent of texting.

The body of your e-mail should begin with a quick statement of purpose. If you’re asking questions or making requests, be sure to separate each of them with bullets or a line of space.

If your messages seem too long or start covering too many topics, don’t be afraid to use several shorter e-mails to get the point across.

Always include a signature line with your contact information. Just be sure the information is up to date!

Slow down! Avoid typos, double check attachments, and review your to: and cc: fields.

Finally, six quick tips that will immediately improve how well your e-mail works for you:

1. Set rules to automatically filter messages.
2. Use categories and flags to highlight important messages.
3. Turn off automated mail checking.
4. Eliminate noisy alerts and popups that interrupt and distract you.
5. Move messages directly into your calendar.
6. Remove yourself from unnecessary mailing lists.

With these tips in place, 2010 will surely prove to be a tidy and productive year!

A recent study on laptop failure rates from SquareTrade, a PC warranty services provider, had some unsettling results: one in three laptops is likely to catastrophically fail within three years. But not all laptops are created equal, and some are more reliable than others. Here are the results among top manufacturers, from worst to best:

9. HP: They may be the laptop market share leader, but nearly 26% of their units failed within the three year study.

8. Gateway: The Acer subsidiary didn’t fare much better, with a failure rate of 23.5%

7. Acer: At #3 in overall sales, Gateway’s parent company was only marginally more reliable at 23.3%

6. Lenovo: A 21% failure rate from the Chinese-owned giant isn’t what you’d call inspiring.

5. Dell: Make fun of their ads and criticize their business practices all you want, but the oft maligned 2^nd place manufacturer was found to be more reliable than their top competitors, coming in at 18.3%.

4. Apple: They’re hip, attractive, innovative, and popular, but Mac Books aren’t immortal. Their 17.4% failure rate puts them in the middle of the pack.

3. Sony: Sony Vaio laptops aren’t cheap, but you get what you pay for with only a 16.8% incidence of crashing.

2. Toshiba: In recent years, they’ve lowered price without sacrificing quality: only a 15.7% chance of becoming a doorstop.

1. Asus: While not quite as much of a household name as many of the PC makers on this list, the quietly dominant Taiwanese company produces components for HP and Apple, and their own units experienced the lowest failure rate of all, edging out Toshiba with a healthy 15.6%.

Source: http://www.squaretrade.com, 2009

As computers become faster and more powerful, a single desktop PC possesses resources far greater than what’s necessary to keep a single user productive. That means lots of gigabytes and kilowatts simply going to waste. Through the process of virtualization, a company can turn a single PC into many “virtual desktops” for multiple users.  It was recently announced that a Silicon Valley firm specializing in large virtualization projects will provide over 30,000 virtual desktops to India’s government employee health insurance program. The project will unify thousands of hospitals, clinics, and insurance offices while creating one of the largest medical databases in the world, all at a 75% savings on hardware and a 90% savings on electricity.

Virtualization requires specialized software and a piece of hardware known as a thin client that connects a user’s monitor, keyboard, and mouse to the shared computer. On top of the cost savings, a virtualized system is less susceptible to network security threats and the amount of energy and materials saved make virtualization one of the greenest decisions a business can make.

Virtualization isn’t just for clients as massive as the Indian government, it can revolutionize how any business manages its IT budget and resources. When you work with Responza’s experts to manage your IT, virtualization is just one of the many cutting edge options we offer to save money, eliminate stress, and just make IT work better.

This holiday season, Google is spreading some cheer by offering free WiFi service on every Virgin America flight and in major airports across the country. That’s right folks. From now until January 15th, you can surf the web for free. Burbank and Seattle airports will be offering free WiFi indefinitely. For more information, check out Google’s official site: www.freeholidaywifi.com/.

It’s shocking to think something as private as your credit card number could be stolen so easily…

Alberto Gonzales and three other men were indicted on Monday for stealing over 130 million credit card numbers from several Fortune 500 companies. So how did he do it? Simple. Gonzalez and his team was able to exploit end users that didn’t know how poor their security was by launching “hacking platforms” on each of their point-of-sale systems, along with the classic SQL-injection attacks. He then used malware to extract credit and debit card numbers.

The companies hit hardest were ones who had taken their security systems for granted. Makes you think twice about your network security, doesn’t it? Just think of all the money and classified information at stake…

To read the full story of this harrowing identity theft, click here.

Netgear just announced its latest product for the small business market: the ProSafe 8-Port VPN Firewall (model FVS318G). At only $139, this firewall is ideal for small businesses that need externally facing network resources like a Web server but have strict internal LAN security requirements. The new firewall also employs a software-configurable hardware DMZ port to help facilitate a server connection or another connection for a device on the network that remote users need to access.

“Our experience with the FVS318G on the network has been very positive,” said Johnny Chin, president and chief executive officer at Onesimus Enterprises, whose company participated in the beta test program. “For the price, we were impressed with the level of features offered along with enhanced security measures against outside attackers. Best of all, it’s fast enough to keep up with our high-speed broadband Internet connection, so we’re both protected and running at top speed.”

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The Greater Seattle Chamber of Commerce is hosting a great networking event at the Rainier Square Conference Center in downtown Seattle. The topic is “Developing a Social Media Plan for Your Business”. Two of Microsoft’s top social media experts are presenting. Here are a few things they will cover:

• The importance of a social media presence
• How to market your business online
• Which networks are most effective for your customers
• How to build relationships online, interact with customers and find social media mentors

I plan on attending, so I’ll take copious notes and report back with any juicy tips!

If you’re curious, here’s a link to the event:
Technology Thursday – Developing a Social Media Plan for Your Business

The recent economic downturn has taken a huge toll on small businesses, but things are starting to look up. According to recent news reports, the unemployment rate for July dropped to 9.4 percent, with only half the number of job losses compared to June. So what role do small businesses play in all this?

The success of small businesses drives our economy. Seventy percent of jobs are created by small businesses and over half of workers in the U.S. either own or work for a small business. Nearly half of small business owners believe the economic downturn caused their company to be more efficient, innovative and cultivate stronger teams.

One way that small businesses are increasing efficiency is through outsourcing. A survey conducted by oDesk reported that 41.9 percent of small businesses outsource more during a recession. Revenue for IT outsourcing grew the most in this past year, up by 12 percent in the 4th quarter of 2008.

Hopefully, the worst of this economic crisis is behind us. And on a brighter note, the lessons that small businesses have learned from this recession led to more efficient and effective business practices. How has your business weathered the economic storm? Have you learned any lessons from this?

Earlier this month, an IT disaster hit some of Seattle’s most successful companies. Fisher Plaza was one of the most advanced communication hubs in the world, but even it wasn’t invincible. The fire and power outage at this data center knocked out several top web sites, including Allrecipes.com and Bing Travel. IT disasters happen all the time. Question is: are you prepared?

Redfin, a Seattle-based real estate site, was one of the first to notice a problem. At 1 a.m., they announced on Twitter that their site was offline. But by 4 a.m., the site was back. How did Redfin, a small business, manage to recover faster than corporate web sites? Redfin CTO Michael Young shares the secret to their success:

Due to extremely high outdoor temperatures which are forecast to continue throughout this week, cooling capacity has been reached in many office buildings throughout the Puget Sound region.

If your building’s air conditioning cannot keep up with these hot temperatures, you may experience heat load problems with your computer servers. There are several proactive measures that can be taken to help reduce heat loads. If you have rising temperatures in your building, we ask that you take the following measures to help: