Microsoft is getting ready to finally pull the plug Windows XP permanently. XP came out eleven years ago on October 25th, 2001. After years of success, on April 8th, 2014, support for the operating system will cease. It has been a longer road than it was...
Portland IT Support Articles & Business Tech News
Cybersecurity, M365, Managed IT Services, AI, & Technology Trends for Portland Businesses
SpireTech Labs: Server 2012 Storage
Just want to keep you all up to date on our progress with Server 2012 testing: We've acquired some more hardware to continue our evaluation of Server 2012. Our lab environment includes two servers connected to a shared external SAS drive array, which allows for...
Cyber-War Inc.
Despite Microsoft's added security in Windows 8, Vupen, a French security firm, claims it has already found a vulnerability unknown to Microsoft. The attack comes via security holes in Internet Explorer 10 and can be used to take control of a computer over the...
Barnes & Noble Hack
One of the largest security stories this month came from the goliath book retailer, Barnes & Noble. In September, they found some of their credit card scanners - limited to one PIN pad at each of 63 stores in nine states - had been "bugged" and used to steal card...
Apple Executive Dust-Up
There was a major dust-up at the world's most valuable company, Apple, at the end of October. Two top company executives, mobile software head Scott Forstall and retail chief John Browett, were forced to step down from their position. They were both removed for...
Microsoft Surface – RT vs. PRO
Microsoft Surface The release of Microsoft's tablet, Surface, has been causing a lot of ripples in the tech community. The first version is available now, but not many people have got their hands on it yet. There have been more questions asked about the...
SpireTech Labs: Windows Server 2012 First Look
In the buzz of the next version of Microsoft's desktop operating system, Windows 8, an important Microsoft release sits in its shadow - Windows Server 2012. Often taken for granted, Windows Server is the keystone to many offices. We've had a peek at the release...
Kickstarter Questions
Kickstarter is a program for funding new, creative projects, bringing together people who have ideas for projects with funders who want to contribute. The model allows contributions at all levels, from one dollar to thousands. Kickstarter has been getting a lot of...
Business Cloud File Storage Revisited
A few months ago, we reviewed the open-source package OwnCloud. Since then, we've been through a few version updates and bugfixes, and are unhappy to report that Owncloud is not ready for prime-time yet. Our main beef at this point involves file...
PPTP VPN Seeing it’s Last Days
For a long time only third party software existed to connect two networks via an encrypted connection (called Virtual Private Networking, or VPN). Microsoft introduced a built-in version of this technology into Windows Server, and its use became widespread. This...
Portland Metro Area Ethernet
Editor's note: This post is from 2012 and describes a service SpireTech no longer offers. SpireTech has released a new high speed internet service to businesses in the area. Times and technology move forward at haste every day and we've seen the need from...
Microsoft Surface Making Ripples
More rumors emerge from the internet about Microsoft's Surface tablet. At Microsoft's TechReady15 conference, they stated all of the retail prices were laid out - the new tablet will become available on October 26th and start at $199. This comes as a pleasant surprise...
Tracking Stolen Laptop Leads to Drug Bust
On the surface, you've likely seen this story before - someone uses an online tracking system to find stolen equipment. What makes this story entertaining and unique is a twist at the end. A tech writer for Make Magazine started a blog of his experience of having the...
Google Nexus 7 – First Impressions
After my first two weeks being the owner of the Google Nexus 7, my impressions are positive. As a worker in the tech industry, I need access to a computer pretty regularly, and access to e-mail is an important part of my job. The appeal of getting a tablet was to have...
Many Questioning Microsoft’s Moves
The release of the Microsoft operating system, Windows 8, and tablet, Surface, has been announced. October 26th is the date that will set Microsoft's fate, for better or worse. The backlash from the direction the industry giant is taking has already begun. Most of the...
Yahoo Hack Analysis – People use Terrible Passwords
In more recent security news - a database of 450,000 user names and passwords of Yahoo Voice users was stolen and produced to the internet. Unfortunately for Yahoo Voice's users, the passwords weren't encrypted. Lucky for us, Anders Nilsson, a Swedish security expert,...
