Afinety Gets Social! Check Out Our Facebook Page & Twitter Feed!

Check out Afinety's new Facebook page and Twitter Feed!  Stay in touch with what's going on with Afinety and get the inside track on IT trends, technology news, upcoming events, support alerts, and other key information and news you can really use - and enjoy! 

• See what's trending and follow us @Afinety on Twitter. 
• And "Like" us on Facebook!

See you online!  Coming in July:  a whole new website with great new features and online resources!  Stay tuned! 

So start planning for the future.  You may find that your new system costs so much less to maintain than your old one that you end up saving money overall by upgrading.  

Outstanding Client of the Quarter: Lewitt Hackman Shapiro Marshall & Harlan, A Law Corporation - Summer 2013

Each quarter, Afinety selects a firm to name as the “Outstanding Client of the Quarter.”  This quarter we would like to recognize Lewitt Hackman Shapiro Marshall & Harlan.  The firm will receive a catered lunch delivered to its Encino office, along with our thanks and admiration. 

All of our clients are special to us and the relationships we form with them are very much a partnership.  The Outstanding Client of the Quarter is selected for its professionalism as well as the benefits it receives from Afinety’s unique standardization and planned refresh approach.  A law firm like Lewitt Hackman requires a professional-grade computer system and this becomes part of its clients’ perception of the firm.

We sat down with Firm Administrator, Darlene Heller, who has been with the firm for 25 years.

“Afinety has been our saving grace for many years,” explained Darlene.  “Everyone is terrific and I enjoy working with the entire team.”

Afinety Team Member Spotlight: Shawn O'Connor, Consulting Engineer

We are pleased to introduce you to one of the new additions to the Afinety team,  Shawn O'Connor, Consulting Engineer.  Shawn joined the Afinety team about 7 months ago.

Prior to Afinety, he worked as an IT Manager for a large corporation and provided support for their national team of sales reps in addition to maintaining the firm's network.  Shawn mentioned that this experience was a good stepping stone in his career path.

Shawn lives in Pacoima with his wife, 2-year old son, his in-laws and 3 dogs.  In his free time, Shawn enjoys fishing, working on cars, and programming.  He is a movie fanatic, and also loves to watch marathons of shows, like "Breaking Bad" and "Arrested Development," to name a few.

Being the techie that he is, Shawn is big on gadgets and enjoys keeping up with the latest products and improvements.

Shawn's role at Afinety includes providing network health assessments.  He also works in conjunction with the engineering and sales teams to provide recommendations for various solutions for our clients.

Welcome Shawn!

Windows XP Pro – Going to a Retirement Home Soon!

By Doug Hafford

Many of you have probably read or heard that the venerable Windows XP operating system is being retired next year.  We are in fact less than one year away from that event.  Considered revolutionary in its time, XP was released worldwide for retail sale on October 25, 2001.   It’s hard to imagine ANY technology lasting for over 13 years in today’s fast changing environment but XP will have done that and more before its final bell is rung.

What does retirement mean to you?  It means that Windows XP Pro will no longer receive any sort of updates or support from Microsoft.  Those crazy folks out there who create malware to vex the rest of us honest business people will have a field day.   If you have ever examined the list of patches on a Windows XP computer it is nothing short of massive.  This is because of the far different environment we live in today vs. 2001 when this version of Windows was created.  Microsoft has been hard pressed to close all the holes in this operating system as it ages and when they stop, the result will be quick and possibly brutal.

ALERT! Format Pleadings - Changes to Local Rule Amendments

Please note that General Order 625 contains the latest Local Rule amendments effective February 8, 2013.

Among the changes are revisions to Civil LR 5.1.a, Format of Pleadings, which now requires the use of 14 point standard font for printed text produced on a word processor or computer; revisions to the Patent Local Rules; and changes to Criminal LR 57.2.1, Related Cases.

For more information, please visit www.casd.uscourts.gov to view General Order 625 for a complete summary of all the rule changes for Southern District Court.

If you'd like any assistance with existing or new macros, please contact us.

TECH TIP: MS Word - Remove Metadata with Built-In Document Inspector

The following tech tip is provided by Patrick Cabral, Systems Engineer at Afinety.  Patrick is also one of our trainers.

During our onsite training classes, our clients often ask about hidden data in documents and how to remove it.  When you share an electronic copy of a Microsoft Word document with clients or colleagues, it is a good idea to review the document for hidden data or personal information that might be stored in the document itself or in the document properties.  This hidden information, or metadata, can reveal details about your organization or about the document itself that you might not want to share publicly. 

You can remove this this hidden information with a built in feature in Word 2007 and newer versions (2010 and 2013) called Document Inspector.

Click on the Office Button  >  Prepare >  Inspect Document.

For more information on how this feature works, click on the below link:

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/word-help/remove-hidden-data-and-personal-information-by-inspecting-documents-HA010354329.aspx?CTT=1.


For more information about scheduling a training class at your firm or via webinar, please contact us at sales@afinety.com