Tom’s Tech Tip: Are You Ready for Windows XPiration?
On April 8, 2014 Microsoft® will stop supporting and updating its popular Windows® XP operating system. To the average person this may sound like it’s “going out of warranty.” But to the computer savvy Certified Legal Nurse Consultant this should be terrifying. Once Bill Gates signs the death warrant on XP there will be no more security or other updates – XP will become a security nightmare. Even CERT – part of the Department of Homeland Security – has warned that after April 8 anyone running XP and using Internet Explorer as their web browser will be at high risk. CERT didn’t go so far as to urge you to abandon XP, instead they simply recommended changing to an alternative browser such as Firefox®.
As a CLNC® consultant you have a duty to do what is necessary to keep your computer files secure. While I don’t recommend going to extremes such as engaging in hard drive encryption, I do recommend installing security patches and Windows updates when they become available. XP users won’t have that privilege or luxury anymore.
So what’s a CLNC consultant to do? Well, you’ve been wanting a new computer for some time, so maybe you should go to Dell, HP, Acer or Lenovo and buy a new computer running Windows 7. Or you could take the great leap forward and go straight to Windows 8 (which is about to become 8.1, a vast improvement over 8.0). If your computer is new enough and powerful enough you can also upgrade from XP straight to Win8 – download the Windows Upgrade Assistant to see if your computer will work with Win8.
Nancy either one is a great choice. It comes down to budget and familiarity as macs are more expensive and have a learning curve for Windows users. Either will work in your legal nurse consulting business as long as you have Word-compatible software to generate your documents/work-product.
Decided to get a new computer. Noticed you mentioned in a previous post to make sure and get a laptop with plenty of memory. How much memory do you recommend? The computer I am looking at is an HP Pavilion laptop with 2.5 GHz Core i5-4200M processor and 6 GB DDR3L SDRAM, it has Windows 8.1 OS. Does this have enough memory?
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The National Alliance of Certified Legal Nurse Consultants (NACLNC®) is the largest and oldest association of legal nurse consultants.
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*The opinions and statements made by Vickie Milazzo, the founder of Medical-Legal Consulting Institute, Inc. are based on her experiences and expertise, should not be applied beyond the specific context provided, and do not guaranty or project actual results. Vickie Milazzo is no longer involved in the operations or management of the business, but is involved as an independent education consultant.
Keep on Techin’,
Great, just when I finally figured it out ….
New Computer is on the list.
BTW -38 with a wind chill of 28 in Clarion Pa. – just saying……
One constant of technology is the constant change. BTW 71 and sunny here. LOL
Tom,
Do you recommend a PC or MAC?
Nancy either one is a great choice. It comes down to budget and familiarity as macs are more expensive and have a learning curve for Windows users. Either will work in your legal nurse consulting business as long as you have Word-compatible software to generate your documents/work-product.
Decided to get a new computer. Noticed you mentioned in a previous post to make sure and get a laptop with plenty of memory. How much memory do you recommend? The computer I am looking at is an HP Pavilion laptop with 2.5 GHz Core i5-4200M processor and 6 GB DDR3L SDRAM, it has Windows 8.1 OS. Does this have enough memory?
Roberta you’ve got it!