The Official Rackspace Blog » Eric Boyce

Outlook 2010: Top 5 New Features

Eric Boyce — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 13:58:04 +0000

Microsoft has released the new Outlook 2010, and it is loaded with new features and improvements that will make managing your email, calendar, and social connections a breeze. Look at what’s new:

Multiple Accounts

Now you can send and receive through multiple accounts including Hotmail, Gmail, or just about any provider. It even supports multiple Exchange accounts.
Easy Scheduling

With just one click, schedule a meeting based on the email that you are viewing. Sharing calendars and requesting a shared calendar are simple tasks with new collaboration options. You can compare busy/free times at a glance with the new Schedule View that displays multiple calendars horizontally.
Conversation View

Easily structure your overwhelming inbox into categories and subject based email chains. With one click, you can review all the emails, whether sent or received, on any subject topic.
Social Network Connections

You can stop switching between a ton of different social networking clients and websites. Outlook can now be connected directly to multiple social accounts, including Facebook and LinkedIn.
User Summaries

By clicking on the picture or icon of a user from within an email, you can rapidly review emails and attachments that they have sent you and meetings they have with you.

To learn more, check out these features in action.

Rackspace Business Productivity Rx: Escape to Productivity

Eric Boyce — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 12:48:27 +0000

Another email alert has popped up on your screen; you just left a meeting and have another one in an hour. And your mind shifts with the tide of conversation filling the cube farm. Are you going to have to come in on the weekend again to get things done?

At Rackspace, we know how hard it can be to get your work done with a constant bombardment of distractions. Here are some methods our teams use to maximize output:

	Email Time—Managing email can easily consume 40% of your day, and the constant notifications of new messages and social media updates makes the effect on productivity much worse. Set aside specific times for managing email and social media. Perhaps only review messages first thing each morning or three times per day, and close related applications except during those sessions.
	Meeting Scheduling—Developers and creative talent require a high level of focus. It can take as much as 20 minutes to recover from a lengthy distraction and regain that focus level. Meetings spread throughout the day, every day, are a productivity killer. Schedule meetings only during one part of the day or only on a couple specific days of the week and stay consistent.
	Flee the Farm—There may be times when you have to escape from the cube farm to get stuff done. Our developers will often migrate to empty conference rooms, guest offices, or work from home to get the peace they need to be productive. We also use an offsite “stealth” office for teams that need absolute focus for big projects. Escape from the farm when you need to focus in and get it done.

All of these tips may not be viable for your specific role or organization, but we hope that they help you get more done without costing you your weekend.

Rackspace Business Productivity Rx: Increase Productivity with Free Training

Eric Boyce — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 12:46:02 +0000

No matter the promises of improved efficiency, communication, and productivity, an application is only worth what you can actually do with it. But not everyone has time to read through pages and pages of documentation, and different people learn in different ways. Did you know that Rackspace provides opportunities every week to expand your knowledge base, with live experts available to answer your questions? These interactive webinars are completely free of charge. We offer a variety of times to fit your schedule, and there is also a library of recordings so that you can view them at your convenience or share them with others.

For new customers, we offer “Getting Started” sessions every Tuesday. For Resellers, we offer several different sessions covering how to sell specific products and sales techniques. And for everyone, we have sessions covering an array of topics that are presented daily. Current webinars include “Using Workflows in SharePoint” and “Maximizing your Webmail usage.” We update our topics frequently and welcome your feedback so that we can be sure to present the information that interests you the most.

Webinar calendars:

All Customers
Resellers

Recorded video libraries:

All Customers
Resellers

Rackspace Business Productivity Rx: Use Your Inbox as a Phone

Eric Boyce — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 14:32:43 +0000

Rackspace Webmail users, did you know you can place a call, from within Webmail, with one mouse click? With Skype’s built-in browser toolbars, you can initiate a call directly from any webpage—including Webmail.

And when Skype detects your Skype contacts within Webmail, it will display their availability status—making it easy to know when your contacts are logged into Skype and available to chat.

To make a call, just click the green phone symbol. And whenever a Skype contact is identified, their current Skype status (Online, Away, or Offline) is displayed beside their name.

Not familiar with Skype? Skype is a communication application that allows you to create a list of contacts and communicate with them in a variety of ways—including text messages, sending links, sharing files by drag and drop, sharing your desktop, and placing individual or conference calls using voice and video. You can even call landline or mobile phones. And except for calling standard phones, it is all free!

To enable these new features, download the latest version of Skype: http://www.skype.com/intl/en-us/home/. Note: You may need to restart your computer after the installation.

To learn more about using the toolbars, visit .

And to learn more about how Skype can also integrate with Outlook, visit http://www.skype.com/intl/en-us/get-skype/on-your-computer/email-toolbar/

Email Phraud: An Illustrated Guide

Eric Boyce — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 14:07:06 +0000

The proliferation of personal computers and easy access to the Internet have brought astounding opportunities and conveniences. Auction sites, relationship match making, effortless financial transactions, you can do just about anything you need to do without leaving your home.

And with these advances in technology and mass communication, opportunities for criminals to separate you from your money have exploded.

According to the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) 2009 Internet Crime Report, complaints of Internet related crime rose 22.3% to 336,655 submissions compared to 275,284 complaints in 2008.

Let’s review some examples of scams the tech-savvy crooks use and tips that will help you avoid being a victim.

Tom receives an email that appears to be from his bank. It has the bank’s logo; it has his name in the greeting; it has a link that contains the bank’s name. The email states that there is a problem with Tom’s account, and they need him to verify his account information at the provided link.

However, the website that the link goes to is a fake owned by a scammer. It may appear exactly like the actual bank website, but its only purpose is to get Tom’s account information and steal his money.

Legitimate organizations will rarely ask for personal information in this manner.

Bobby, a struggling college student, needs to sublet his apartment. He advertises the apartment on his college’s student housing website. He quickly gets an email from Joey. Joey says the apartment is perfect, and his uncle will send a check for the $500 deposit.

A week later, Bobby receives a cashier’s check for $1500. Bobby then receives an email from Joey telling him that there was a miscommunication with the uncle, and Joey asks that Bobby deposit the check and send back the extra difference by cashier’s check or money order.

Bobby is glad to have someone in the apartment and has trust in the college provided housing list so he deposits the uncle’s check and immediately withdraws the difference and mails it. Five days later, the bank contacts Bobby and informs him that the check he deposited was counterfeit. Now Bobby has no tenant, has lost $1,000, and “Joey” is enjoying a shopping spree.

If you are involved in a similar situation, make sure the check clears first.

George receives an email informing him that he has offended a gang or terrorist organization. The sender claims to be the hitman hired to “take care of” George and his family.

However, according to the hitman, one of the gang members is a friend of a distant relative of George’s and has begged for leniency. So, the email states that George will be left alone if he coughs up $6,000.

Threats of violence and murder are powerful emotional triggers. These emails are lies using fear to steal.

Cindy has just received wonderful news; her email address was randomly selected, and she has won a foreign lottery. According to the email, she just needs to send a processing fee of $1,000 to begin the transfer of her $500,000 lottery winnings.

Unfortunately, Cindy will never see the $500,000 or her $1000 again. And she may continue to receive email requests for taxes, additional fees, and as much as she will continue to send.

The golden rule to avoiding becoming the victim of a con artist: if it looks too good to be true, it probably is.

Howard is a lonely man. He just cannot seem to find the right lady. After visiting some dating websites, he begins an email correspondence with a lovely girl in a foreign country. She shares pictures, is committed to advancing the relationship, and seems legitimate.

Then she starts requesting money. She at first claims to need money for a plane ticket to come visit Howard. Then there is a snag, and she needs more money for a visa or for another mishap that keeps her from travelling. Howard is now lonely AND broke.

Criminals have no regard or sympathy for their victims. They will target any emotion or difficult situation to get what they want. Consider all of the recent Haiti earthquake relief scams.

What if It Is Too Late?

If you believe you have been the victim of an Internet crime, please file a complaint with the Internet Crime Complaint Center:

www.ic3.gov

Illustrated by Rackspace Artist Klaus Shmidheiser

Copy the code below to embed this infographic:

The proliferation of personal computers and easy access to the Internet have brought astounding opportunities and conveniences. Auction sites, relationship match making, effortless financial transactions, you can do just about anything you need to do without leaving your home. And with these advances in technology and mass communication, opportunities for criminals to separate you from your money have exploded. According to the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) 2009 Internet Crime Report, complaints of Internet related crime rose 22.3% to 336,655 submissions compared to 275,284 complaints in 2008. Let’s review some examples of scams the tech-savvy crooks use and tips that will help you avoid being a victim. Tom receives an email that appears to be from his bank. It has the bank’s logo; it has his name in the greeting; it has a link that contains the bank’s name. The email states that there is a problem with Tom’s account, and they need him to verify his account information at the provided link. However, the website that the link goes to is a fake owned by a scammer. It may appear exactly like the actual bank website, but its only purpose is to get Tom’s account information and steal his money. Legitimate organizations will rarely ask for personal information in this manner. Bobby, a struggling college student, needs to sublet his apartment. He advertises the apartment on his college’s student housing website. He quickly gets an email from Joey. Joey says the apartment is perfect, and his uncle will send a check for the $500 deposit. A week later, Bobby receives a cashier’s check for $1500. Bobby then receives an email from Joey telling him that there was a miscommunication with the uncle, and Joey asks that Bobby deposit the check and send back the extra difference by cashier’s check or money order. Bobby is glad to have someone in the apartment and has trust in the college provided housing list so he deposits the uncle’s check and immediately withdraws the difference and mails it. Five days later, the bank contacts Bobby and informs him that the check he deposited was counterfeit. Now Bobby has no tenant, has lost $1,000, and “Joey” is enjoying a shopping spree. If you are involved in a similar situation, make sure the check clears first. George receives an email informing him that he has offended a gang or terrorist organization. The sender claims to be the hitman hired to “take care of” George and his family. However, according to the hitman, one of the gang members is a friend of a distant relative of George’s and has begged for leniency. So, the email states that George will be left alone if he coughs up $6,000. Threats of violence and murder are powerful emotional triggers. These emails are lies using fear to steal. Cindy has just received wonderful news; her email address was randomly selected, and she has won a foreign lottery. According to the email, she just needs to send a processing fee of $1,000 to begin the transfer of her $500,000 lottery winnings. Unfortunately, Cindy will never see the $500,000 or her $1000 again. And she may continue to receive email requests for taxes, additional fees, and as much as she will continue to send. The golden rule to avoiding becoming the victim of a con artist: if it looks too good to be true, it probably is. Howard is a lonely man. He just cannot seem to find the right lady. After visiting some dating websites, he begins an email correspondence with a lovely girl in a foreign country. She shares pictures, is committed to advancing the relationship, and seems legitimate. Then she starts requesting money. She at first claims to need money for a plane ticket to come visit Howard. Then there is a snag, and she needs more money for a visa or for another mishap that keeps her from travelling. Howard is now lonely AND broke. Criminals have no regard or sympathy for their victims. They will target any emotion or difficult situation to get what they want. Consider all of the recent Haiti earthquake relief scams. What if It Is Too Late? If you believe you have been the victim of an Internet crime, please file a complaint with the Internet Crime Complaint Center: <a href=”http://www.ic3.gov” _cke_saved_href=”http://www.ic3.gov” _cke_saved_href=”http://www.ic3.gov” style=”font-style: italic;”>www.ic3.gov</a> <a href=”http://www.rackspace.com/apps/email_hosting/exchange_hosting” _cke_saved_href=”http://www.rackspace.com/apps/email_hosting/exchange_hosting” _cke_saved_href=”http://www.rackspace.com/apps/email_hosting/exchange_hosting”>Hosted Exchange</a>