Are you looking for the perfect computer system for your restaurant? Regardless of whether you are looking at a system for your office or restaurant, there are a couple of things you must keep in mind when installing systems that will help run your operations and store all of your critical data.
1. Network cables. The majority of systems are computer-based, designed to run on Microsoft Windows technology. Which means your workstations and computer equipments communicates over standard Ethernet networking. Even though wireless communications have become increasingly popular for home and office environments, I would still prefer to “hardwire” as many of the stations as possible. Some vendors include this service in their bid; others specify that cabling must be arranged with a third-party vendor.
Regardless of who does the cabling, it will need to be completed and tested before installation of the equipment. Each equipment needs to have a cable drop. A cable drop is the cable that connects a device to a network, like your computer or remote printer connecting to a networking source such as a patch panel in the mechanical room or office.
For a restaurant POS system, the restaurant should be wired with CAT 5 or 6 network cabling that connects every conceivable POS workstation, remote printer or KDS, office computer, hostess station, delivery order desks, cashier stations and network server to a “home run” area such as a central patch panel, preferably located in your telephone or electrical room or closet. Cabling routes need to ensure that cables are at least 24 inches from fluorescent fixtures, neon transformers and electrical motors, as these devices can cause communications interference.
2. Electrical. Install dedicated and isolated circuits that all of your POS, computers, network devices such as hubs and routers, and phone systems can share. No other electrical equipment should be on this circuitry. I would prefer having your network, phone, and electrical service to be near to each other. An isolated circuit means its ground is separated from the main electrical service. This helps prevent spikes and surges that can disrupt motherboards and hard drives. Note, however, you may still want to use surge protectors at each workstation.
3. Designing workspace. When designing workstation areas, make sure to leave ample space to comfortably fit all needed equipments there. A flat roomy space for server stations should be large enough to hold your computer monitor, guest check printer, and possibly a credit card terminal if you plan to use separate credit card equipment. Leave enough space directly underneath the tabletop to hold your computer, surge protector, power strip and UPS.
If you plan to place your workstations on mill-manufactured top such as granite or woodwork, have your contractor pre-drill holes to place cables or power cords beneath the surface. A 2-inch hole should give sufficient space for cords and cables on most POS systems.
For cashier and bartender stations, tabletop space should also be ample enough to perfectly fit a cash drawer and an order confirmation customer display. Most cash drawers have a footprint (space requirement) of 15- to 17-inch depth; 16- to 20-inch width; and 3.5 to 4 inch height. So better make sure you get the drawer specifications from your supplier in advance if you are building a custom countertop for your drawer to be recessed perfectly in.
4. Service plans, as part of your system. Many vendors may offer some type of service plan as part of your original purchase. The fact is, business grade systems are composed of hardware that are not built to last forever especially in retail establishments like a restaurant. Printers will eventually break, fans will fail, and hard drives will crash. How often they depend upon the conditions under which they operate. Dirt, dust, heat and moisture are the most common danger to office and restaruant POS equipment.
There are those people who rarely experience problems wih their computers while others continue to suffer the same problems. The best thing an operator can do is to invest in good equipment and maintain it to reduce future damages. Many restaurant POS solutions provider will offer ongoing service plans that are basically extended warranties. The annual cost for these services usually ranges from 10%-20% of the original purchase price.
Computer systems represent a sizable investment. But if you set a time to make sure that the above steps are included in your checklist, then you are more apt to be rewarded a return on your investment by getting the most from your system in cost reduction, labor savings, and ensuring that you can account for all cash.
The Author of this article is the Vice President of Customer Relations at POS-for-Restaurants.com — With over 20 years of restaurant experience that helps ensure that your technology is more efficient and your business more profitable .
The world of Rapture has a lot in common with Jurassic Park. Both fictional places tried to create a sort of closed paradise, playing with nature to fulfill the needs of their respective creators. Both experiments went horribly wrong, making a point about the will of man. In popular culture, when reach exceeds grasp, people die terrible, action-packed deaths.
Bioshock 2 takes place ten years after the events of the first game. I’ll keep this review spoiler-free for both games for those who are still playing through Bioshock due to various Steam sales, but allow me to say that things haven’t settled down since we last saw the underwater world of Rapture. Everyone is still breathing, you see lumbering riveters repairing damage to windows and other structures, and the Splicers are still hunting for ADAM and coming into contact with the Little Sisters and their hulking Big Daddy escorts. It’s a constant fight for survival, and as the frequent scenes of death prove, most are not successful.
There is something of a power vacuum, however, and a few personalities have risen to try to fill it. Bioshock 2 is the story of a Big Daddy. You might call him the Big Daddy. The game begins with a violent act, and you wake up to a world even more violent now than how it was left at the end of the previous game. You have a single name on your lips: Eleanor.
Mozilla Labs recently announced the official release of Weave Sync 1.0, an add-on for Firefox that can automatically synchronize browser settings and metadata between multiple computers over the Internet.
Mozilla launched the Weave project in 2007 with the goal of cloud-enabling the Firefox Web browser. Weave consists of a Web-based service that is hosted by Mozilla and client-side add-on that integrates with the browser. The user’s browser data, including bookmarks, passwords, preferences, page history, and active tabs, are encrypted by the add-on and transmitted to Mozilla’s servers in the cloud. The data can then be relayed to other instances of Firefox that are authorized by the user.
The venerable GNU Image Manipulation Program (GIMP) is undergoing a significant transformation. The next major release, version 2.8, will introduce an improved user interface with an optional single-window mode. Although this update is still under heavy development, users can get an early look by compiling the latest source code of the development version from the GIMP’s version control repository.
The GIMP is an open source software application for editing raster graphics. It is intended to serve as a free and open alternative to high-end image editing programs for a professional audience. Although the GIMP still has some limitations relative to industry-leading commercial products like Photoshop, it is becoming an increasingly viable solution for professional artists and photographers.
Mozilla announced last week the availability of Firefox for Maemo 1.0, the first official release of Firefox Mobile for Nokia’s Linux-based smartphone operating system. It offers adequate browsing performance, support for add-ons, and a finger-friendly user interface that includes popular Firefox features like the AwesomeBar.
This Firefox variant is based on the Fennec project, which was originally launched in 2007 with the aim of bringing the full Firefox browsing experience to modern handheld devices. In the time that has transpired since the inception of the project, advancements in mobile computing hardware have significantly boosted the performance of smartphones. That factor, coupled with Mozilla’s aggressive optimization efforts, have made it possible for Firefox to become a mobile browser.
Fans of This American Life, a weekly Public Radio show hosted by Ira Glass, were thrilled to discover that a dedicated iPhone app had been released. Developed by Public Radio Exchange, the This American Life (TAL) app not only gives users unfettered on-demand access to the show’s entire archives going back to 1995, but provides the content in a user-friendly and interactive format.
Now, instead of buying those back episodes for 99¢ apiece on iTunes or getting stuck listening on the Web, you can grab those episodes anytime for a flat app cost of $2.99. We gave the TAL app a whirl—being the huge TAL fanboys and girls that we are—and found that it was definitely worth the money, despite a few of the typical annoyances that come with third-party apps.
Google has announced the official release on Windows of Chrome 4, an updated version of the company’s Web browser. It offers a handful of significant improvements, including support for extensions and bookmark synchronization.
Due to Chrome’s rolling development model, these features have been widely used by testers for quite some time. The official release means that the new functionality will be rolled out to regular end users through the stable channel. In addition to the major feature enhancements, Chrome 4 also brings a performance boost. Its score in the Dromeo DOM benchmarks is a 45 percent improvement over the previous version.
The bespoke line-of-business application is a common feature of the corporate world, and a thing that has been instrumental in cementing Windows as the corporate desktop OS standard. These applications—I’ve worked on a few myself—are typically crummy affairs. The foundation of such applications is typically some combination of Visual Basic 6 and obsolete versions of Access and Excel. On top of this mound of [redacted], these apps usually contain one or more third-party components to draw graphs or something, from vendors that have long since gone out of business.
Dark Void seemed to be the cure for what ailed us. A new intellectual property featuring jet packs, Nikola Tesla, flying saucers, and a void… that’s dark. This is the sort of story that plays well in trailers and in a demo, but when you’re playing the actual game you’ll be forgiven if it all jumbles together. The girl has a past with your character? You’re a lovable rogue played by Nolan North? You don’t say!
Slap a jet pack on Nathan Drake, and let’s get started with this review business.
The Ubuntu development community announced today the availability of Ubuntu 10.04 alpha 2, a new prerelease of the next major version of the Ubuntu Linux distribution. This alpha is the first Ubuntu release to completely omit HAL, a Linux hardware abstraction layer that is being deprecated in favor of DeviceKit.
The alpha release introduces a few new applications, including the Pitivi video editing tool and the GBrainy game. Some of the other planned changes to the default application set have not yet been made. The GIMP, which is scheduled for removal from the default installation during this development cycle, is still included in alpha 2. Some other applications that are planned for inclusion in 10.04, such as Gwibber, aren’t ready yet and have been pushed back to alpha 3.