Computer Support Blog

In the United States, students learn that there are two avenues to success: connections and higher education.  While nepotism and interpersonal relationships certainly have their roles in advancing one’s career, nothing takes the place of hard work.  But even those who work hard are told the only way to truly get ahead is by pursuing higher education.  The technology sector confounds those expectations by advancing educated individuals who have great ideas and needed skills, as opposed to just higher degrees.  One executive who has benefitted from corporations who value experience over degrees is Patti S. Hart.

Patti S. Hart is the Chief Executive Officer of International Game Technology, the maker of video slot machines, like Lucky Larry’s Lobstermania!  Hart joined the Board of Directors of IGT in 2006 and ascended to CEO of IGT in 2009.  Since becoming CEO, Patti Hart has expanded the influence of IGT in casinos and promoted the video game versions of IGT games, making International Game Technology even more profitable.

Read more »

There are plenty of different options for data storage available on the market and many of them work great. So why do we need a new device for data backup? The Samsung Optical Smart Hub is not quite the same as any of the other options, although it is not yet for sale. At the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), Samsung unveiled the Optical Smart Hub SE-208BW along with their many other great new products.

Until now, the options for data backup were CD/DVDs, tape drives, external hard drive, or a Cloud (a method of online storage for data). These are all great methods of backing up your data and programs, but they usually require you to connect to some other device in order to work such as a CD/DVD burner.

If you are looking for a more secure, off site method of data backup, however, look no further than Rescuecom. Rescuecom provides online backup on our secure servers so that you will never lose your valuable information.

Read more »

Angry Birds is very cool and it is time we acknowledged that.  Angry Birds may have started as a limited computer game for smartphones, but it has evolved into a real cultural phenomenon.  In addition to the smartphone game, Angry Birds is now a merchandising bonanza.  Stuffed toys, t-shirts and other swag featuring Angry Birds hit the market right in time for the holidays last year and were very popular among a diverse range of ages and subcultures.  Even Hartz, the pet product manufacturer, licensed Angry Birds for dog and cat toys!

Why is Angry Birds so cool?  First, Angry Birds is very easy to buy.  The popular game started its life as a game application for Apple’s iPhone and iPod Touch.  Because those products featured a touchscreen, Angry Birds exploded onto the market as one of the first games that utilized that technology well.  Apple customers were excited about their touchscreens and Angry Birds gave them something to get truly excited about.  While Angry Birds was originally only available as an Apple app, with the rise of Android, the game’s publisher, Rovio, expanded the programming to allow it to play on the Android Operating System.  Now, there are versions of Angry Birds for virtually every platform, including Windows, Playstation 3 and the Nintendo 3DS!

Read more »

Sometimes, a good idea is as simple as making a product easier to buy or rent.  What is the value of an idea that simplifies the buying experience?  In the case of Redbox, making DVDs and video games easier to rent made the company billions of dollars.  Much of the success of Redbox is the result of the hard work of Mitch Lowe.

Redbox was a novelty pilot program outside McDonald’s restaurants when Mitch Lowe joined the company in 2003.  Lowe was one of the co-founders of Netflix and he saw in Redbox a real threat to the company for whom he was working.  Adopting the philosophy of “if you can’t beat them, join them,” Mitch Lowe decided he wanted to see the Redbox model succeed.  He left Netflix and joined Redbox as a consultant.  Lowe quickly rose to Vice President of Purchasing and Operations of Redbox before the Board promoted him to Chief Operating Officer.  In 2009, Mitch Lowe was promoted again, this time to President of the company!

Read more »

Have you had enough with portable technology devices?  If you said ”yes,” it can hardly be considered a surprise.  More than any other time in history, the consumer electronics market is overflowing with options . . . so many that it is easy to fail to see what the point of it all is.  Media players alone have become a market where the options seem to be designed more for competition between products than actually filing a niche that is desperately yearning to be filled.

For small-screen devices, you have your smartphones.  While many of the smartphones have screens that are less than 2” for the diagonal screen measurement, the iPod Touch changed the nature of such devices when Apple released it with a 3.5” screen.  This created a niche of handheld devices that could surf the Internet and perform all sorts of media functions, including playing movies and music.  The Apple iPhone added telephone communication to that and with that, Apple firmly entered the smartphone wars.

Read more »

No matter what the latest leaps forward in computers, we are still a long way away from having computer systems that implant images straight into your brain.  That means that no matter what type personal computer you have, you are going to need a monitor for it.  Even if you have moved to a laptop computer or tablet computer, a good monitor can make all the difference for enjoying games and media presentations when used in conjunction with an adapter cable.  The monitor that can give you the best picture quality at affordable prices is the ASUS ML228H High Definition LED Monitor.

The ASUS ML228H Monitor is a 21.5” flat screen monitor with widescreen proportions.  This Energy Star-compliant monitor has a true resolution of 1920 x 1080, which gives it great definition and pixel density.  ASUS pioneered a 10,000,000:1 contrast ratio that lights images with a powerful backlight resulting in images that look lifelike.  The images are so vivid that looking at photographs on the ASUS ML228H Monitor is like looking through a window into an alternate reality!  That sense of picture quality is not only for static images.  With the 2ms response time, moving objects on the ASUS High Definition monitor remain clear and crisp.

What does all of this mean outside the jargon?

Read more »

The fight over Internet security and intellectual property reached some new highs in December with the Stop Online Piracy Act and the Protect IP Act garnering quite a bit of press and controversy.  The debate is a classic Freedom of Speech position taken by those who want the Internet to remain independent of laws and restrictions versus protecting the business interests of large companies.  One of the big multinational companies supporting SOPA in the U.S. is Sony.  Sony’s chief lawyer is Nicole Seligman.

Nicole Seligman’s official titles are Executive Vice President and General Counsel of both the Sony Corporation and the Sony Corporation of America.  She is also the Corporate Executive Officer for the Sony Corporation and something of a celebrity in the field of corporate law.  Seligman has been vigorously fighting to protect Sony copyrights and patents for films, music, video games and video game platforms since Sony Corporation of America CEO Howard Stringer personally hired her in 2001.

Read more »

In the past Vizio has dealt exclusively in televisions and, within the last year, tablets. Their products have always been reasonably priced and of durable quality, hardly ever requiring any kind of computer repair. With their sleek designs and Smart TVs, Vizio has long been a reliable company from whom to buy good televisions. They constantly try to push the boundaries. Even this year, they released two mind-blowing televisions: an 84-inch Smart TV with a resolution of 4000×2000 and their Cinema Wide TV, which shows videos in 21:9 widescreen just like at the movie theaters.

This year, though, Vizio stepped dramatically out of its comfort zone and began making computers. They introduced three new laptops and two new all-in-one desktops at the Consumer Electronics Show. The sleek look and silver coloring of these computers give them a widely impressive design.

Read more »

Every major industry has a merchandising arm designed to attract business.  If you have ever been to a medical conference, you may have gotten nauseated seeing how much money pharmaceutical companies pour into some of the weirdest swag in the world.  So, it ought to be utterly unsurprising that computer companies have similar merchandising arms.  Apple, for example, has an entire line of products from clothes to pocket knives.  Similarly, to commemorate the defeat of a human chess player by the supercomputer Watson, IBM has produced some limited clothing.

The Watson cap is a black baseball cap that features the Watson logo on it!  Clearly IBM wanted Watson to be able to identify who in a crowd was allied with the supercomputer as this hat is made of quality materials.  The cloth of the hat is enzyme washed cotton twill and the adjustable strap on the back of the hat is fabric and features a buckle and grommet design.  IBM made the strap padded for comfort and easy adjustment for different head sizes.  What truly separates the Watson hat from cheap baseball caps is the embroidered Watson symbol on it.  Instead of just silk screening the bright blue and green symbol on the black cap, IBM embroidered the symbol so it will not chip off or fade as easily!

Read more »