The Road Ahead

In the last few days we've upgraded our free URL shortening service LeafURL. As before, LeafURL is completely free to use, and if you register for an account, you are able to manage and monitor the performance of your shortened URLs.

In the next couple of months we will be enhancing LeafURL with improved and enhanced reporting and management capabilities for registered users. If you have any suggestion or ideas, get in touch.

Everything comes to an end, and after 12 years Microsoft will cease support for Windows XP on 8th April 2014. At first glance, this might not seem important. Computers running Windows XP will not magically cease to work on the 8th, but they will become progressively more vulnerable to attack and security breaches as Microsoft will no longer release security updates and patches.

If you are still using Windows XP, you now have less than a month to upgrade or replace your operating system.

Before purchasing the latest version of Windows, compare the system requirements of Windows 8.1 with that of your computer. Computer hardware has changed significantly in the past 12 years and upgrading to Windows 8.1 may not be possible with your current hardware.

If a Windows upgrade is not a viable proposition, then there are alternatives. One common route is switching from Windows to Ubuntu Linux. Ubuntu is free to download and install and unless you absolutely require Windows or Microsoft Office, it is a reliable alternative that includes the LibreOffice Suite. A guide on how to migrate from Windows to Ubuntu may be found in this month's PcPro magazine.

After 8th April, we will only offer support for customers still using Windows XP on a case-by-case basis.

Microsoft Exchange 2013 is now the default messaging service for new customers. With Hosted Exchange 2013, you get the latest technology, a better way to share email, calendars and contact information and easier mailbox setup.

For existing customers, we can still add Exchange 2010 mailbox now and into the foreseeable future.

Happy Christmas from Calzada Media!

If you're worried about whether Santa is on his way, check out either Google Santa Tracker or NORAD's Santa Tracker. They don't actually agree, so we'll leave it to you to trust either the Chocolate Factory or the US Military ;)

Don't forget, we'll be performing maintenance work between Christmas and the New Year.

In many ways, the IT industry is a lot like Network Rail - we tend to undertake upgrade and substantive maintenance work during the holidays. This year will be no different as we have a busy schedule of planned work to take place between Christmas and the New Year.

For the most part, the upgrade work will not interfere with normal operations. The big ticket item is an upgrade to our mailserver software which will require an unavoidable period of service interruption to all mail services. We're currently looking at around a 20 minute period of interruption, but we hope this will be much less.

As always, we will post individual notices on this blog and and on our Twitter Feed with regard to potential service interruptions. If you have any queries, please send us a message through helpdesk.calzadamedia.com.