Contrary to what some might think, that free 15GB you get when you start using Google Drive isn?t used by just Drive itself; it?s used across several other Google services, including Gmail and Google+, for email attachments and photos alike. Here?s how you can find what?s eating up all of your Google Drive storage. Analyze Google Drive?s Storage PageThankfully, there?s a really convenient way to see what?s taking up all of your Drive?s storage space. By visiting Drive?s Storage Page, you can see a simple pie chart of what?s using up most of your storage space. As you can see, it tells you exactly how much storage is being used, and where it?s being used. This lets you see what needs cleaning up. For example, if most of your storage is being used for your email and attachments, it might be a good idea to weed that out. Similarly, if you have too many photos on Google+, it might be a good call to go through them and see which ones you can do without. What Uses Up Your Drive?s Storage?The storage page is actually very helpful in informing you of what takes up space in your Drive account. At the bottom of the screen, underneath the pie chart, you?ll see a section that tells you what exactly uses your Drive storage. Surprisingly, any files created using the core Google Apps (Docs, Sheets, Slides) don?t take up any storage at all, while just about anything in your Gmail inbox takes away from your Drive storage. As for Google+, only photos larger than 2048×2048 pixels, and videos longer than 15 minutes, eat up your Drive?s storage. Take Back Your StorageNow it?s time to go through all of your stored files and find the ones that are taking up the most space. One way of doing this is by sorting your files by quota used. On the lower left-hand side of the screen in Drive, right above the link that says Buy more storage, you?ll see your current storage use. Hover over it and a box will appear with more specific numbers. Click Drive. This sorts your files by Quota used, meaning how much space they?re taking up. This can help you manage your Drive?s storage more efficiently. As for sorting out your email, it can be tricky to delete files, as some of them might be better off archived somewhere for later viewing. Contact White Mountain IT Services for help establishing an email archiving solution for your business. You might have plenty of space being taken up by your Google+ photos, too. Plus, if you have an Android phone, there?s a good chance that you?re syncing your device?s photos to Drive, effectively backing them up. To make sure your photos don?t exceed the designated maximum, open the Google+ app on your Android phone. Click Settings > Auto Backup > Photo Size, then select Standard size. This keeps them from being uploaded as larger files that actually take up space in Drive. Keep in mind that there may be instances where you don’t want Google scaling down your images automatically. By taking these steps, you should be able to minimize the amount of storage you?re using in Drive, and maximize the amount you can store without needing to upgrade. For more tips and best practices […]

This ?boring? video is more of an analysis of the way the human mind has developed under the grueling conditions of continuous stimulation. The video argues that, while surfing the Internet, the average user will indefinitely choose entertainment over more productive alternatives (like actually doing work). This is because over a decade of Internet use has fostered an attitude that we don?t necessarily have to be bored, which in turn has allowed people to justify not reading through an entire article. Hence, the term, ?tl;dr? (Too long, didn?t read). Can You Finish This Article?By now, we?ve probably lost at least half of you. For those of you who are still with us, don?t take it personally, but we know that most of you probably won’t finish this article. According to Slate, which performed a study concerning their web traffic and reader statistics, about five percent of all those engaged by Slate?s articles couldn?t even be bothered to scroll down the page. This means that they didn?t see anything at all within the article, and instead went to another page. Thankfully, the majority of visitors scroll down to about the halfway point. Still, this doesn?t necessarily mean that they read the whole article. They might have only read half of it, and then chose to share it over social media because they found the premise interesting. If this is the case, they won?t have read the whole article, and the people who click on it through social media probably won?t, either. Thus, there will be a whole slew of people who only have a vague understanding of the article?s content. Of course, there?s also the huge influence that media has on the number of people who scroll through the entire article. Most people can?t be bothered to finish the article unless there?s something visually stimulating in it, like videos or pictures. There isn?t even a guarantee that those who scroll through all of the article have even read it. For all we know, people could scroll down the page to see if anything catches their eye, then leave afterward. These trends use the assumption that the web article is roughly 2000 pixels long (the length of a typical web article, roughly two pages of text or 1,000 words single-spaced). If You?re Still with Us, CongratulationsIf you?ve made it this far, you?re one of the few who would take the time to read the whole article. You chose to take some time out of your schedule to read this entire article, and we appreciate that. In a world where we never have to be bored unless we choose to be, it?s almost as if people are simply looking to curb their hunger for entertainment rather than trying to read something intellectual. This natural time-wasting mindset can be detrimental to the business owner. The Internet makes it easier than ever to be distracted and wander in meme-land for several hours a week. By taking advantage of productivity best practices from White Mountain IT Services, you can minimize mental downtime in the office and truly allow your online practices to flourish. Give us a call at (603) 889-0800 to learn more.

In case it?s not clear, bottlenecking is a term that?s named after the way a bottle is shaped; narrow at the top, wider at the bottom. The bottleneck is supposed to control how much liquid is poured from the bottle. Techquickie defines bottlenecking (also known as a choke point) as, ?Holding back the performance that could otherwise be achieved.? Unfortunately, locating the source of the bottleneck on your company?s network is often easier said than done. You must locate the source of the issue and resolve it as quickly as possible if you hope to achieve optimal performance in the workplace. Most of the time, resolving the issue is as simple as upgrading whatever is causing the bottleneck so that it?s at the same performance level as the rest of your network. One example of this is upgrading a single aspect of your PC and expecting an overall increase in performance. For example, you may upgrade your video card in hopes of making your PC run better. This fix might make your display look prettier, but it won?t do much to fix problems with your CPU or RAM. If these are old and have already hit their limit, upgrading your video card won?t do anything at all to increase the performance of your PC because they are the bottleneck. The chances of a bottleneck occurring in your network increase as the complexity of technology increases. Therefore, if you?re dealing with a computing infrastructure that?s filled with complex workstations, server units, and other mission-critical hardware, you?re going to witness a substantially larger number of network issues. For instance, if you?re working with top-notch workstations, but your router isn?t up to snuff, this bottleneck will prevent you from maximizing your computing potential. Finding the exact cause of a network bottleneck requires a comprehensive analysis of your network infrastructure, which is why you should call in professional IT technicians if you suspect a potential bottleneck. White Mountain IT Services, with our years of expertise in the technology industry, can troubleshoot and identify issues with your IT infrastructure. Without our ability to quickly diagnose performance issues, it can be easy to place the blame on a piece of hardware that might be as good as new. Knowing with certainty where your network issues lie is one of the most beneficial aspects of working with White Mountain IT Services. This helps you get the job done right the first time. White Mountain IT Services can run diagnostic tools that will determine the exact cause of your network bottleneck. This helps us resolve the issue as quickly as possible. Even better, there?s a good chance that we can resolve the issue remotely without an on-site visit. This makes our services even more convenient. If you think you?ve got a network bottlenecking issue, give White Mountain IT Services a call at (603) 889-0800. We?ll work through the issue with you to make sure it?s fixed right with minimal wasted time.

Click a Link with the Scroll Wheel Button to Open it In a New Tab First off, did you even know that you can press down on the scroll wheel and use it as a third mouse button? You sure can. Give it a try! If this is news to you, then a whole new world of clicking lies before you. Instead of right clicking a hyperlink and then selecting ?Open link in new tab,? save yourself a click and simply click the link once with your mouse?s scroll wheel button. This will automatically cause the link to open in a new tab. Close the Browser Tab by Clicking it With the Mouse Scroll Wheel ButtonIn addition to using your mouse scroll wheel to open new browser tabs, you can use it to close tabs. To do this, simply hover the cursor over the page?s tab and then select it with the mouse scroll wheel. This may seem like a rather silly tip when you can do the exact same thing by clicking on the X, but using the scroll wheel gives you a little more real estate to work with, and it?s a convenient way to go about it once you?ve gotten into the habit of using the scroll wheel button. Ctrl+Scroll Up to Zoom In/Ctrl+Scroll Down to Zoom OutThis handy scroll-wheel tip works for your Internet browser and other applications too (but not all of them). Instead of having to go to the view tab and select Zoom in or Zoom out, it?s much easier and faster to hold down the Ctrl Key while scrolling up or down with the mouse scroll wheel. When using the mouse scroll wheel for this purpose, you will notice that the more you scroll means the more that gets zoomed in or out. Be warned, if your mouse has a hair trigger, you will quickly find yourself zooming in or out by a few hundred percent. Bonus Tip: When using the scroll wheel to zoom in with your web browser, you can zoom into the point where you no longer see those annoying ads on the side of a web page. You?re welcome. Now that you know more about what you can do with your mouse?s scroll wheel, you may want to think twice about trading it in for a touchscreen. Despite mobile technology overtaking the tech world, we feel that there?s still room for the reliable computer mouse. Do you prefer the mouse to touchscreens and touch pads? Do you know of any other cool tips that you can do with the mouse scroll wheel? Let us know in the comments.

Let?s examine the current state of paid time off in the workplace. Most businesses use a PTO model that allocates them a certain amount of hours over time, either annually or on a monthly basis. These employees generally need to put in requests for time off at least two weeks prior to the time-off date. This provides the team with a limited amount of time to recuperate, which ultimately limits how much work can be accomplished at maximum capacity. According to Zach Ferres, the CEO of Coplex, unlimited paid time off can be exceptionally useful, and offers a unique return on investment that can help your team truly achieve greatness: Employers who offer unlimited PTO report increased employee satisfaction, improved work-life balance and greater productivity. Plus, unlimited PTO can be a huge selling point when you?re recruiting, and it will actually save your HR department an average of 52 hours per year. One popular company that has implemented this policy with great success is the video streaming service Netflix. Last year, Virgin founder Richard Branson followed suit, as reported by Business Insider: Virgin founder Richard Branson recently declared that the company’s employees can take as many vacation days as they want, provided that “their absence will not in any way damage the business ? or, for that matter, their careers!” Branson said that he got the idea from Netflix. Unlimited PTO can help your team feel like human beings, and can drastically improve operations if integrated properly. After all, when you feel good, you work good, too. Additionally, when employees are responsible for their own paid time off, it can instigate an increased rate of team playing and increased synergy. According to Ferres, here?s how it?s done. Trust Your EmployeesIntegrating any kind of unlimited PTO policy requires a certain level of trust, so it?s important that you can trust your employees not to abuse the privilege and get work done. If they start to abuse the privilege, it might be time to let go of the project before it even begins. On the opposite side of the spectrum, however, the unlimited PTO policy shows your employees that you trust them. Put a Mandatory Minimum PTO Policy into PlaceSome employees tend to not take vacation, breaks, or other PTO, even when there?s no repercussions for doing so. These employees tend to get burned out more than others, and vacation benefits them more than it does for some. Integrate a minimum number of hours that an employee must take off annually to keep the stress as low as possible. Use a Solid Process for Time-Off RequestsYou can?t have people randomly coming into the office and leaving without any semblance of order. Therefore, you should keep a policy in place that helps you determine how to process time-off requests. Ideally, you want to be notified several weeks ahead of time, and establish a way in which tasks ordinarily assigned to the team member get divvied up to others (if they’re urgent). Keep Track of Who Takes Time OffNaturally, a business owner wants to keep track of PTO records. This helps them ensure that nobody is abusing the right, and that those who are taking advantage of the system are doing so properly. This also helps you keep track of the employees who haven?t […]