Gone the Way of the Dodo

While we marvel at many of the incredible technologies that we use everyday, the truth of the matter is that in less than 10 years, many of these will be quaint memories. Here are 12 Technologies on the verge of extinction.

Magic Bus

If you've got one of Canon's amazing video-capable DSLRs, you know you've got a powerful camera. What you may not know is that you can add some incredible features, for free, with an open-source firmware add-on called Magic Lantern. Here's how.

FaceBook Fun

As many of you know, Facebook isn't known for their great default security settings...and the news is getting worse. Here's The Facebook Setting You Should Change as Quickly as Possible.

Happy Data Privacy Day

Yup, there really is such a day...and it's today! Here's a roundup of add-ons, tools, and tips to protect yourself.

How Did I Know?

One of the things I watch on an almost daily basis are "how to" videos on the web. Sure, I can read the instructions, but watching a 5 minute video takes the cake every time. One of the best sites for this is Lifehacker. Here are The Most Popular Lifehacker How To Videos of 2010.

Declutter

Sometimes you may find yourself in the middle of a working day with your desktop cluttered by a zillion open windows. This can be distracting and make it difficult to focus on what you're doing right now. Here's how you do it without touching the mouse: hit Win+Home and every inactive window instantly minimizes. Presto! [Hitting Win+Home again un-minimizes every window!)

Dr. Gary Sanchez--creator of 4D Dentistry

Watch this short introductory video now...



Register for this FREE webinar, "4D Dentistry: Best Practices of Dental Web Marketing by Dr. Gary Sanchez" right now. Even if you can't make it at the scheduled time, as long as you register, the webinar recording will be sent to you. The conference lines are limited and will fill up. Click on the button below and sign up now to reserve your spot!

Key Exchange

As any power PC user will tell you, while a mouse is nice, real power users use the keyboard. Windows has a ton of keyboard shortcuts; here are 20 that you might not know.

Music To My Ears

Streaming video or music from services like YouTube or Pandora is great for sampling a wide variety of stuff, but sometimes many dentists want media from their own collection to play for patients. Here's a look at five great solutions for streaming your personal media.

Public Enemy

With many of you traveling to dental meetings and accessing computers on the go, you probably use a number of public Wi-Fi spots. Most do not provide the level of security that you'd like to think they do. Here's How to Stay Safe at a Public Wi-Fi Hotspot.

New Year's Resolutions

Those important computer tasks—like securing, cleaning, and backing up—are like any other resolution: we all say we're going to do them but rarely keep up with them all year. Here's a simple guide to staying on track in 2011.

Go Phish

Email scams, or phishing, aren't going to disappear any time soon. As much as we'd like to think that people we know aren't taken in by messages like the one in the screenshot above, chances are good that you know of someone who has taken the bait. It's easy enough to recognize a scammy email message if you know what to look for, so let's break it down.

Monitor Madness

PRACTICE MONITOR® IS NOW AVAILABLE FREE FROM SIKKA SOFTWARE CORPORATION

NEW PRODUCT WORKS WITH MOST DENTAL MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS AND ALLOWS DENTISTS AND TEAM MEMBERS MONITOR, SEARCH AND REVIEW THEIR PRACTICES WITH CLICK OF A BUTTON


MILPITAS, CA - January 17, 2011 - Sikka Software Corporation (www.sikkasoft.com) today announced a brand new product that uses powerful technology and extremely simple and easy to use interface to help dentists and team members keep track of major indicators in their practice. The new product called, Practice Monitor® stays in the dental practice and keeps dentists data secure. It is able to track top 10 patients, top 10 procedures, insurance payments, appointments, production, collection, accounts receivables, new patients and dozens of other things for any time period as long as you have data in your practice management system with just the click of a button with rich graphs and charts.

"This is the time of year when most dental practices are looking at planning and thinking about ways to improve productivity and maximize return on investment. This FREE for LIFE product based on our over 7 years of experience works with all major practice management systems and takes only minutes to install" said Vijay Sikka, CEO & President of Sikka Software Corporation. "Practice Monitor® gives you everything at your fingertips and is extremely easy to use."

A downloadable desktop version is available at www.DentalPracticeMonitor.com and the program installs and configures automatically. It has built in Live Updates and benchmarking data feeds to help dental practices maximize efficiency and reduce costs. In addition, it has built in social networking, skins and intuitive customization capability.

About Sikka Software
Sikka Software Corporation was incorporated in early 2004 with the intention of providing best of class business optimization and intelligence software solutions to dental and healthcare community.

Sikka Software Corporation products, with 7,000 installations, and more than 10 million end-users of its customer base, help dentists and their teams understand and maximize business profitability with best fee schedules and marketing campaigns, as well as analyses of return on investment, patients, insurance, supplies, and demographics.

A privately-held company, Sikka Software is headquartered in Milpitas, California with offices in the United States and in India. More information may be found at www.sikkasoft.com.

Smiling Faces

COSTA MESA, CALIF., NOVEMBER 2010 — CareCredit, a leading provider of patient payment options, and Smile Reminder, a leader in patient communication and interaction solutions for healthcare providers, have created the CareCredit Edition of Smile Reminder, helping practices that offer CareCredit enhance and streamline their patient communications.

Smile Reminder, a pioneer in electronic messaging to patients, is a program healthcare providers can use to consistently and privately communicate with patients, helping enhance patient retention and loyalty. The Smile Reminder program features a range of personalized, opt-in patient communications, including text and email appointment reminders, thank-you notes, patient surveys, and newsletters.

“Increasingly, healthcare practices recognize the value of communicating with patients electronically, through email or text. For many patients this is the easiest way for them to receive information and to be able to respond,” explains Mark Olson, vice president of Business Development, Smile Reminder.

The CareCredit Edition of Smile Reminder enables practice teams to inform patients about their payment options. Plus, patients can apply for financing before their appointment, making it easier for them to accept recommended care. The CareCredit Edition of Smile Reminder also helps practices privately and securely communicate with patients who have incomplete treatment and who already have CareCredit as a financial resource about scheduling a return visit to complete the care they need.

“Our goal is to help more patients get the treatment and procedures they need,” said Cindy Hearn, senior vice president of Marketing, CareCredit. “The CareCredit Edition of Smile Reminder makes it easier and more convenient for patients to access care, providing text and email communications that help reduce missed appointments, scheduling gaps and foster long-term patient loyalty and satisfaction.”

To learn more about the new CareCredit Edition of Smile Reminder, go to www.carecredit.com/smilereminder.

Get Smart

Most dentists could benefit from the features of a standard smartphone. If you've been sitting on the sidelines, it's time to jump in. Here are The 25 Best Smartphones of 2010.

Cart Before the Horse

This one come from my friend, Dr. Gary Henkel. Antivirus programs are necessary for modern day computing. However, the problem with most of them is that by the time the file is on your computer, it's often already too late. Wouldn't it be great if you could check out files or suspicious websites before you download them? Check out VirusTotal, which does exactly that.

Lock and Load

The caps lock key is one of those remnants of another age of computers, back when people used to shout at each other more often. Unless you're in the accounting department, it's probably not very useful, so here's how to disable it.

Best in Show

One of the best technology shows each year is the CES in Las Vegas. I couldn't go this year; I had to actually work :-). But, no need, as PC Mag has chosen their Best of CES.

The Wait is OVER!

Finally! Verizon is getting the iPhone. I am running out of excuses not to get one :-)

New Computers 101

So, you got that new computer for the holidays...grats! You didn't think it's fine as is, did you? Of course not. Here's How to Set up and Get to Know Your New Windows PC or Your New Mac.

What's Old is New Again Part II

Following up on yesterday's post, those of you who did get new computers this holiday season are probably wondering what software to load onto it. Here are 20+ Essential Program for Your New Windows Computer.

What's Old is New Again

With many of you receiving new computer as holiday gifts, there are probably a lot of used computers and you don't know what do with. Sure, you could always donate them to a school or charity, but there are lots of other ways to put them to good use. Here's 5 Ways to Recycle or Revitalize Your Old Computer.

iPad 101

Hopefully, many of you received an iPad for the holidays...I didn't as I've had mine since last April. While the iPad is a great device, there are many ways to do things that most folks don't know about. Here's the best collection of tips, tricks, and tutorials on the iPad that I've ever seen.

Printer Madness

Whether your photo printer is new or has been collecting dust between the holidays, you’ve likely spent a few frustrating moments setting up the machine. But did you know proper setup can improve the quality of your prints? Here's how.

Batten Down the Hatches

There's really no question what the most popular, free antivirus program for Windows is at Download Squad. Microsoft Security Essentials is at the top of the heap -- and I tend to agree. With detection rates every bit as good as some competing paid products (and better than many), MSE might just be the best piece of free software Microsoft has ever released.

And it's just gotten better, with the official arrival of Security Essentials 2. The upgrade adds several key improvements, not the least of which is a heuristic scanning engine. One of the big knocks against its predecessor was that MSE's protection relied too heavily upon definitions -- and in today's ever-changing threat landscape, definitions just aren't enough.

MSE 2 also offers improved defense by better integrating with existing Windows features. The updated app adds muscle to the Windows Firewall and Internet Explorer to offer increased protection against network and Web-based threats. There's also a new network inspection feature which uses the Windows Filtering Platform in Vista and Windows 7 -- XP users won't benefit from this feature, obviously.

If you're already running MSE, check your update tab for an upgrade notification -- your system tray icon may also be orange if the update is available. You can also download Security Essentials 2 manually and install over the old version.

Smile a Little Smile For Me

Many of you are looking for a way to provide entertainment to your patients while they are getting treatment. Sure, there are many ways to do this, bu take it from someone who does this every day: none of them are especially easy or elegant...until now.

SmileCinema is a great system that provides you with a media server and software so that patients can easily choose from a long list of up to 60 of your own movies that they will digitize for you...and you can add more through their Amazon site. Priced really well with low monthly fees.

If you're interested, just fill out this form and someone from the company will contact you...it couldn't be easier.

The Proof Is In The Pudding

We in the tech industry are always hearing rumors of the latest and greatest stuff...some of which is true, many which are not. Here's a look back at the Tech Industry's Biggest Rumors of 2010...and what actually came from them.

High IQ

Dear Friend of ToothIQ,

Tooth IQ announces that their full catalog of animated dental patient education videos is now available for immediate use- FREE on the web at http://www.ToothIQ.com/TV. It features:

1. 180 short videos to help understand dental procedures quickly and completely. We are planning to release 1 to 2 more animations per week for the first quarter of 2011.
2. Full screen resolution for in-office use at chairside. Just click the enlarge icon in the lower right corner of the Flash player.
3. Intelligent navigation from one animation to another, based on analytics data and peer reviewer feedback; and which allows users to follow common treatment pathways for a rapid understanding of their topic of choice.

They will also be introducing ToothIQ Mobile and Find a ToothIQ Dentist later this month. TIQ Mobile will allow users to play our full catalog of animated video on most smart phone devices (Currently in testing on iPad, iPhone, Blackberry, Droid and Palm).

Find a ToothIQ Dentist will allow patients to connect with dentists who use ToothIQ to educate and inform patients in their practices. A full-page microsite with toll free tracking numbers will be provided for dentists who purchase a professional membership.

Dentists can also upgrade ToothIQ TV to ToothIQ Pro, which features ad-free playback, practice branding, and many other useful tools. For more information, visit ToothIQ.com/Pro

Starting The Year Off Right

No better way to start off 2011 than with putting some great software on your computer. And, why pay for it? There's a TON of free stuff out there. Here's The Best 90 Free Windows Programs...some real gems here.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year to everyone! I want to thank all of you who continue to support my blog and offer comments on how I can improve. 2011 will be our best year ever!