Business cards are no longer a function of simple information exchange—they are a means of introduction and a profound expression of brand and identity. Cards don’t require batteries, a smartphone, or experience, and everyone in the world understands what they are. Follow these 5 simple rules to create an exceptional card:

1. Keep it simple—Keep the design simple and streamlined. Don’t order a card that is too cluttered or requires too much work for a quick reorder.

2. Know your audience— Don’t give a funny card to a serious executive or a thick foil-embossed card to the founder of Save the Rainforest.

3. Include your address—Having a physical location on your card lends legitimacy to your business.

4. Leave the back side blank—This is a great place for the recipient to jot down any pertinent notes.

5. Consider texture and weight—If too heavy and highly embossed then you are killing trees. If too flimsy and plain then you are too cheap.

Brain function— the growing body of research shows that people who play action-based video and computer games make decisions 25 percent faster than others and without sacrificing accuracy. They make choices and act upon them four times faster than most people. They develop the ability to pay attention to six things at once, compared with four for others on average. And the violent-action games that worry parents so much had the strongest beneficial effect on the brain, according to both Rochester and Geneva studies.

Dexterity—a study conducted by University of Rochester psychologists found that video game-playing surgical residents and surgeons, who were tasked with performing a certain procedure, were 24 percent faster, made 32 percent fewer errors and scored 26 percent better overall. The percentages were even higher for those who played games frequently.

Eyesight—according to the Rochester studies, people who played action video games for a month were able to identify letters presented in a cluttered format 20 percent better. These results were demonstrated after just 30 hours of play.

So, maybe video games aren’t to blame for all the social and physical woes of today’s youth. Something to think about the next time you feel guilty about playing games yourself or fear that your child’s brain is turning to mush from the presumed dangers of video gaming.

Now we segue into the technology. Clever, eh? In what kind of shape is your computer? Is it the snappy little speed demon it used to be? Or is it taking longer and longer to do tasks and balking at odd times? Computers need checkups and cleaning periodically, too, just like humans. But exercise? Not so much. Let’s start getting your computer in shape systematically with some easy steps.

First, back up all of your data to an external hard drive or, better yet, to a CD/DVD that can’t be written over. Then follow these steps in the order provided…

Get rid of all the stuff you don’t need—the temp files and cache files, etc. In My Computer (or just Computer in Windows 7), right-click on the icon for your C: drive, and choose Properties. C: may be your only hard drive, or you may have more, but we’ll start there since that’s where Windows and all your programs are installed. It may contain all of your data, too. So, be careful even though you just backed up, right? A graphic will show you how much of your hard drive space is used or free. Below and to the right of that graph is a button labeled Disk Cleanup. Click it. A window will appear asking which files you want to cleanup. Choose Files from all users on this computer. After the program runs for just a few minutes it will present you with a list of file types that you can safely delete. Trust the program; it knows. You really can do without all of those files—but if you use the Recycle Bin as a safety net, don’t check that. Leave that alone for now. Choose the rest as you see fit and you’ll be surprised how much space you’ll free up (it’s displayed below the window). Just as important, however, is the colossal number of tiny files that Windows no longer has to keep track of on the disk. If you delete the Thumbnails, they’ll be recreated as needed. Ready? Press OK. After a minute or so you can proceed with the next chores. If you left files in the Recycle Bin go there and manually remove everything you don’t want. Focus on the biggest files and the 0-Byte files. That will do the most good. Sort the columns by size to make it easy.

Now open Internet Explorer. Click Tools, Internet options. On the General tab, in the Browsing history section, press the Settings button. There you can control your Temporary Internet Files (browser cache). The purpose of the cache is to store stuff from the web so the browser can use the copy on the hard drive rather than downloading it again. Unfortunately, IE is a space hog and defaults to a large cache, which was great in the old days of dial-up, but of less use now. Large caches can even slow your browsing down. If it takes longer to find an item in a huge cache than download it again from the site then that defeats the purpose. So, if you have a good high speed connection, drop the cache own to 50 MB. When you click okay it will toss the older stuff out and trim itself to 50 MB. Don’t delete cookies. They make your life easier as you browse the web—remembering that you’re a return visitor, etc. Now trim the cache in any other browser you might use. You may already notice an increase in browsing speed.

Now that you have removed the bulk of junk from your hard drive (probably a couple of Gigabytes), let’s get organized. Go back to My Computer, right-click on the C: drive as above, choose Properties, then click the Tools tab and choose the Check Now… button. This will examine your hard drive and clean up any bad sectors and mark them as unusable. Don’t worry, all disks have a few bad sectors . This may take a long time. Let it run while you go for a long bike ride (remember what month it is). If you have a lot of bad sectors, however, your hard drive may be on its last legs.

Now, once that is done, defragment. Your hard drive stores files in bits and pieces wherever it finds room. Defragmenting makes available chunks of space large enough for your files to be contiguous, so they are read from the drive more quickly, with less wear and tear on the drive. On the same Tools tab, choose Defragment now. If you don’t have defragment scheduled to run regularly, this could take a while, possibly a few hours. If so, let it run while you take a jog. Then run it again. It will finish more quickly and will clean up the few files it wasn’t able to move during the previous session. While you’re here, set the defragmenter to run once a week. You’ll never notice it on a multi-core computer and it will take less than an hour or so.

Next, make sure your virus definitions are up to date and run a full virus scan. Also make sure that your anti-virus program is set to scan your emails and that it does a full scan weekly.

While you’re setting up schedules, set up a backup plan, at least weekly. There is one thing to watch for if you just backup changed files weekly. Your email program (Outlook, Thunderbird, etc.) holds all emails in one file. If you get any emails, it backs up the entire mailbox, not just new mail. That mailbox could be a gigabyte or two. Decide for yourself if you want to commit the space and time to a weekly backup of that entire file. You could do it manually.

The next step is to clean the guts, but because it is easy to cause irreversible damage to interior components we highly recommend bringing your machine to us and we will clean out all the dust and debris for you with our specialized computer dust removal equipment.

Once it’s up and running, turn it off and go play outside. It’s May; you’ve been cooped up all winter. Go have some fun. And if all, or some of the above seems too daunting to you, bring your computer into Advanced Computer Repair. We’ll do it all—and more—and have it back to you before you know it. And while we have it, you’ll have an excuse to get out for some exercise.

Google Cloud Print—Lets you print remotely to a connected network printer but also integrates with a bunch of apps so that you can print from Chrome or any mobile device. It’s free and available on iOS, Android, Web service, and more. Get started at www.google.com/landing/cloudprint.

OfficeDrop—This free digital filing systems helps you manage all types of paperwork. You can scan any piece of paper (even the napkin scribbled with notes during a business lunch) with your iPhone, iPad, or Android tablet, and OfficeDrop will save it to the cloud as a PDF file that is instantly searchable. Share documents and notes without leaving your desk or the lunch table.

Instapaper—Save all of the interesting stories you want to read from your favorite news sources and save to Instapaper. You can then pull them up during your flight (or when on a train or sitting in the passenger seat of a car) when there is no signal available. Great for the traveler who doesn’t want to pay for or deal with the hassle of getting in-flight internet service. iOS app is $5. Web service is free.

SlideShark—View and share PowerPoint presentations on the iPad with all the original graphics intact. No conversion issues here. Simply upload your file to the cloud and SlideShark automatically converts it for download to the iPad. You can also share presentations for online viewing from virtually any device, and even track the viewing results. The first 100MB of storage is free, with paid subscriptions starting at $49 per year.

Technology now plays a critical role in our daily lives and continues to have an ever-growing impact on the environment. Computers, copiers, and servers, are all significant consumers of energy, both to use and produce. There comes a time, however, when old machines need to make way for new models. What do you do with your old computers and printers? In case you didn’t know, it has been illegal in New Jersey since January 2011 to throw away computers, monitors, TVs, etc., into the trash. Some municipalities have had that rule in place for much longer.

In New Jersey, recycling is offered by all counties. Links to your county’s recycling information can be found at www.recyclingnj.com/curbside.html or by calling your local municipality for more details. The City of Philadelphia has a day each month on which residents can drop off hazardous materials and recyclable electronics. Or you can drop off at one of three Sanitation Convenience Centers located throughout the city. For more details you can visit www.philadelphiastreets.com/hazardous-waste.aspx.

So, what do you do if you don’t have the time or the inclination to make a trip to your county recycling center? Advanced Computer Repair will do it for you. Just drop off your computers at our office and we’ll take care of the rest. We can even destroy your data and hard drive for you. We’ll wipe the drive clean ($40), destroy it physically and give you a certificate of destruction ($50), or transfer your old data ($50–$80) before the drive gets wiped or destroyed. Then it’s off to be recycled.

There is a lot of reusable material in your computer, not the least of which is gold in the processor. The quantity of those metals is very small, but when you consider the scale, it’s worth the effort. The steel and aluminum and plastic also have value in a second life. Computers that are to be recycled first go through a process called demanufacturing—disassembling the devices into their original components. That makes it easier to separate the different materials.

Now, what if your computer’s in working order, but just doesn’t meet your needs. Just because the computer bogs down with the new version of Photoshop doesn’t mean that there’s no life left in it. Instead of recycling it, you have many options.

Upgrade it— If it’s only a few years old and has components that are still in common use (DDR-2 memory, SATA drives, etc.), you could just throw in some new parts. Start with increasing the memory if it’s at the low end of the recommended amount. Then swap out the processor if you need more speed. If your problem is just storage, add a hard drive. Of course, Advanced Computer Repair can help you with all of this if you’d like to leave it to the pros.

Repurpose it— Strip it down to a bare operating system and then build it into a music or video server. Or use it to run automated backups of your other computers on your home network (keeping in mind that you should still copy everything to a removable disc, just in case). Give it to the kids for light gaming or instructional software or to the grandparents for e-mail and web surfing.

Donate it— After all of your data is destroyed, reload the original operating system and give it to a thrift shop to sell. Or check with your local United Way to see if they have member agencies that could use a computer for training or data entry tasks. There are many other types of organizations to which you can donate, even a neighbor in need. Ask around your community.

Computer costs have come down so greatly that there may be little aftermarket sale opportunities for your computer. When brand name, entry-level, dual-core computers can be had for less than $400 (plus monitor), older computers lose a lot of value. Reselling may not be worth the time. But donating and recycling make a lot of sense.

Obviously, the less we buy, the less we have to recycle, so stretching out the replacement timeline is a good step, as is buying less in the first place. Consider replacing that aging desktop with a laptop, which uses much less material and consumes less electricity. Unlike in the past, laptops no longer suffer a performance hit compared with desktops. When combined with an external monitor and keyboard, they offer the best of both worlds.

Maybe this year we could all actually celebrate Earth Day by taking a few steps to preserve it. Help do your part.

Convenience—Think of a website as a digital business card and one that can fit way more information about you and your business than the traditional paper style ever could. Both current and potential customers can find you with ease when you have a web presence and they won’t have to go hunting around for that card or piece of paper with your contact info on it. It is also easier for current customers to recommend you by simply telling others to visit your website.

Build Relationships—An online presence gives you a 24/7/365 customer service tool that not only gives your customers a better understanding of your business any hour of the day, but also lets your customers connect with you directly via email. Replying to emails is a great way to build relationships. A website also gives you the opportunity to send monthly newsletters or timely information without the hassle of postage and trips to the post office.

Advertising—A website can be a very inexpensive form of advertising. Not only can you offer customers more information about your products and services (depending upon the scope of your site), you can also readily make changes any time you want. Having a sale or a special offer? Add it to your site. Have new photos or new products you want to post? Load them up. And, you can send emails notifying your customers of these additions and changes quickly and on the cheap.

Credibility—A professional looking website not only gives you the chance to make a good first impression, it indicates a sound and thriving business, plus a commitment to your services, products and customers. Some people won’t even bother to call or connect unless you have a live website in place!

Competition—Last but not least, competition is the most important reason to have a website. Local retailers, online stores, and even manufacturers, use websites to establish a strong presence in the marketplace. While not all of your competitors have websites, you can be sure some do, and you don’t want to lose potential business to them. So, if you don’t already have a website up and running, it is time to get one—and get found.

Computer repair companies have begun to offer similar services. For a yearly fee you get special monitoring of your computer, priority access and repair, discounts, and much more. There are two primary target markets for this service: companies for whom computer down-time is a serious problem, and home users—especially those with children who might not be as careful with the computer as they should be.

Advanced Computer Repair has had its Computer Care Club up and running for about a year, and its services are very similar to the model used by companies across the country. There are different plans for different needs, but all include free in-store diagnostics, tracking of your lost or stolen computer, and 24/7 automated monitoring of your hardware and software systems.

A monitoring program, running quietly in the background, sends alerts to the staff at Advanced Computer Repair if it detects any hard drive problems, memory faults, unexpected shutdowns, crashes, file system corruption, unusual software installations, backup errors, antivirus performance, and much more—some 55 monitoring points in all. By watching these systems, the software helps the ACR staff proactively address problems before they become severe. You stay up and running because ACR can catch a problem before it becomes a crisis.

Need more? Antivirus and spyware service, remote and in-store services, data backup, and even parental control software is included in some of the plans. A service like the one offered by ACR’s Computer Care Club can keep your business and your family from joining the millions of users affected each year by viruses and spyware, and it can keep your equipment running better and longer.

You can find out more about the club by visiting ACR’s website and clicking the link on the home page or go direct to computercaremoorestown.com.

And of course, you can always give a call to 856-727-9363 to speak to us directly.

The International Telecommunication Union (a UN agency), though, has had other ideas. Every few years, they are the ones who issue the Leap Second in order to keep official timepieces in line with the heavens and our place in them. The last Leap Second was in 2008, but we may get one this year in June. Everything will then be all neat and tidy. Except… all of your clocks will be off by one second (or one more second), affecting navigation, finance, the Internet, the power grid, GPS satellite signals, and much more. Scientists, NASA engineers, and others will have to spend significant time making adjustments to their programs.

The Mars Science Laboratory, for instance, is currently speeding on its 352-million-mile trip at nearly 64,000 MPH in relation to the sun. And at that rate and distance, an unaccounted-for second could cause serious problems. NASA will make the necessary adjustments, but they’d rather not, and neither would most technical entities. There is a growing movement to end the Leap Second. The ITU has discussed this, but they punted on a final decision until 2015.

Which begs the question: How does your computer really know what time it is? Well, for tracking Daylight Savings Time and times in other locations, Windows Update takes care of that. If your computer is connected to the Internet, it probably checks the time once a week; that is the default. If it’s never connected to the Internet, it can certainly drift, because it uses the computer’s internal clock.

To check or adjust your computer’s time settings, go to the Control Panel, and click the Date and Time icon. You can adjust your clock and calendar from there, although your computer automatically synchronizes with a time service. Due to delays in routing through various servers across the Internet, however, you’ll probably never be accurate to less than 0.5 seconds. But who’s counting, right? Not sure of your time zone? Go to www.time.gov, choose your time zone, and get the time from the NIST clock and see the world map shaded for day and night.

And, speaking of the earth’s place in the heavens, the heavens have been acting up a bit lately and it’s going to get more active. The sun is approaching a peak in its 11-year activity cycle, and we’re seeing a lot more activity already, including some astounding displays of Aurora Borealis farther south than normal (though none this far south yet, unfortunately).

When you see a headline that reads, “Sun points a loaded gun in our direction,” (MSNBC.com), that’s a good sign if you’re looking forward to a display of Northern Lights, but not so good if you have to worry about your satellite or the power grid.

The sun has been streaming a lot of charged particles at the earth lately, greatly heating up the thermosphere. While the atmosphere up there is only about one-millionth of the density at sea level, it can heat up to 2700 degrees and when it does, it expands. A lot. That has an important side effect—it increases drag on small space debris in low earth orbit, causing them to slow down and fall to earth. It’s a lot cleaner up there now than it has been in years.

For more information on the sun’s activity, visit www.spaceweather.com to watch videos of the sun’s surface, or visit www.helioviewer.org and make your own movie.

Keep It Clean—Take the time to clean your printer on a regular monthly basis. Use compressed air to blow out the dust and debris from inside the unit. Remove the toner cartridge for better access and don’t forget the back if it is accessible. If you frequently print labels or other specialty media (like transparencies) use rubbing alcohol to clean the rollers inside the printer.

Regular Maintenance—Following the manufacturer’s maintenance guidelines will greatly extend your printer’s lifespan. This includes eventual replacement of rollers, filters, and fuser. Generally speaking, you can extend this type of maintenance to about 1.5 to 2 times the manufacturer’s recommendation. So, if the printer’s manufacturer says to replace rollers every 100,000 pages, you really can do so at every 150,000 pages or so.

Use a Surge Protector—Electrical surges caused by lightning or other power issues will fry your printer faster than anything else. So, make sure yours is plugged into a good surge protector. Do not, however, plug a laser printer into a UPS or other battery backup system. The printer power is too much for a battery to handle.

Don’t Be Cheap—When it comes to replacing ink and toner cartridges, don’t be lured by less costly off-market or refurbished cartridges. These will cost you more in the long run due to poor printing quality and you will most likely end up buying the manufacturer brand cartridge anyway.

Weak Passwords—Everyone should know by now that you need to use strong passwords for computer use, especially when it comes to the security of your network. Believe it or not, “password” is still the first choice of most users! The optimum password should be at least 8 characters in length and use characters (in both lowercase and uppercase formats), numbers, and symbols. Get creative when thinking of a password and avoid the obvious, such as using your own name, a pet name, or name of a family member.

Trying To Do It Yourself—Setting up a network can be tricky and quite involved. Selecting the appropriate equipment, installation of software, and setting up the proper security measures should be left in the hands of knowledgeable and experienced IT professionals. It is well worth the initial cost and helps avoid costly problems in the long run.

Plug In & Go—Computers are not designed to be ready to go out of the box. Security needs to be configured prior to use. Before you set up phone lines, ethernet cables, or wireless connections, you need security. At the very least this includes virus protection and a firewall.

Lack of Education—A lot of viruses and spyware are unknowingly invited in by the user. To prevent viruses and hackers from getting into your network, keep alert for any known viruses and scams circulating the internet. And be wary of clicking on anything that alerts you to upgrade your security without first checking to see if it is a legitimate alert or upgrade.

Lack of Maintenance—Since no software is perfect, security loopholes will be found and exploited by hackers. Make sure you keep your security patches up-to-date. And if you don’t have automatic virus and malware scanning software, make sure you scan for infections frequently.