Computer Support Blog

All throughout school, your English teacher taught you the correct spellings of words, how to formulate proper sentences, and the difference between a colon and a semi-colon. Then, you bought a computer and a cell phone for your children. Suddenly, you cannot understand a word of the text messages they send you.

With the rise of the Internet and text messaging, the way people communicate has changed. The young people who have grown up using these written methods of instant communication needed an faster way of typing their messages, so they developed what is known as ‘text speak’.

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Some companies in the technology sector work very hard for years before their brand is successful enough to have name recognition outside the industry.  In 2010, two of every five personal computers that were sold used a mother board by computer manufacturer ASUS.  Even so, it was not for a few years later that ASUS began to market computers effectively enough to compete in the computer manufacturing market.  The transition from support company providing vital internal hardware to a recognizable brand of its own comes as the result of Jonney Shih’s hard work.

Jonney Shih is the Chief Executive Officer of ASUSTek Computer, Inc. (commonly known as ASUS).  Shih has been the Chairman and CEO of ASUS since 1993 and he has presided over the company’s longest period of sustained growth.  In fact, it is hard to imagine where ASUS would be if Jonney Shih were not guiding the company.  Virtually every major policy that has made ASUS a household name resulted from Shih’s influence and direction.

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Between work, school, afterschool activities, other responsibilities, and trying to have a social life, it can be easy to forget to do your laundry. Laundry tends to pile up and hardly ever get done, at least in most households, but what if there was an easy way to do your laundry while concentrating on other tasks?

The Samsung announced its new WF475 washer and dryer set at the Consumer Electronics Show this January, which feature integrated Wi-Fi. Along with the now-standard touch screen settings display, your washer and dryer will be able to connect to the Internet.

This built in Wi-Fi capability will allow users to activate the washer and dryer with a smartphone, tablet, laptop, or desktop computer. With this ability to remotely activate the system, if you forgot to turn on the washer before you left the house you can do so whenever you remember, wherever you are. You will be able to start and stop the cycles, change settings, and remotely monitor your laundry by using the SmartHome app.

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Even though YouTube is the largest and most popular video-sharing website, it is not the only one. Vimeo is one alternative for independent filmmakers. Vimeo has gained a large following but it will never be as big as YouTube because it limits the content on the site to videos that the users have made themselves.

The site is popular with musicians and independent filmmakers because it is an easy way to highlight their talents in a community of like-minded people. Users get good exposure on the site when they post their own videos. Many hope to use Vimeo as a springboard for their careers in film or music.

Vimeo announced that it would be completely redesigning its website soon. The video hosting site wants to make the experience it provides better than ever before and more easy to use. Probably the most noticeable change will be a larger video player covering most of the width of the page. Users will also discover new ways for them to share their unique content, easier navigation around the site, and more privacy features.

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What is the one major problem with tablets? If you answered with something similar to “They do not have keyboards,” then you are among the majority of frustrated tablet and touch screen smartphone owners. Tablets are great; they are portable, lightweight, easy to use, and great for working outside the home or office. Tablets are the hot new item over the last two years and many people would love to be able to discard their laptop in favor of their new tablet.

There is just one problem with replacing laptops with tablets and it is a huge problem for users. The lack of an actual keyboard makes typing on a tablet a hassle. Typing on the virtual, onscreen keyboard is slow, imprecise, and awkward. The angle for holding your wrists and arms is completely wrong, and there is also the problem of trying to hold the tablet and type with both hands at the same time.

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Would you like to use your smartphone, tablet, or laptop underwater? That would be cool, but it is not yet possible. Soon, however, you will not have to worry about getting your mobile computing devices wet. HzO is a company that is devoted and its resources to finding a way to prevent water damage from destroying communication devices.

According to the HzO website, this dream began because of a tragic death. A young man fell overboard from a barge and died because he could not get either his cell phone or his radio to work after they had been in the water. If the phone or radio had been treated with HzO’s new WaterBlock coating, that young man might have lived.

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There are few CEOs whose personal story is as interesting as the biography of Jason Hsuan.  Abandoned as a child in China, the Chinese government sent Jason Hsuan to a labor camp where he toiled from ages fifteen to eighteen.  When he became ill from tuberculosis, Hsuan was deported to Taiwan to be with his remaining family.  While that sort of hardship might crush a lesser man, Jason Hsuan used the experience to grow, learn and develop his corporate philosophy.  Now, Dr. Jason Hsuan is the CEO and Chairman of TPV Technology Limited, the world’s largest manufacturer of computer monitors!

Despite having spent three years in a labor camp, which robbed him of educational opportunities and was largely dehumanizing, Jason Hsuan lifted himself up.  Once in Taiwan, Hsuan began working to improve his lot in life.  While he worked for six years at General Electric, he saw it as his duty to go help his father when the Taiwan Pepsi Cola branch suffered a severe economic downturn.  Hsuan prioritized his family and went to work for Pepsi, serving as a Vice President of the Taiwan branch.  That sense of responsibility served Jason Hsuan exceptionally well when he came to the United States to pursue his education.  At Boston University, Hsuan earned his Master’s in Systems Engineering.  After earning his Master’s, Jason Hsuan went to the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn where he applied his talents to getting his Ph.D. in Systems Engineering.

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The music industry, which has spent the decade since they effectively sued Napster out of business, has watched their market shrink for years.  The business leaders within the music industry blamed digital downloads of music, specifically pirated downloads, for the steady decline in revenues.  But 2011 showed some interesting trends in the music industry which suggests that the executives may have simply been grossly impatient with their emerging market.

In 2011, for the first time ever, digital music sales grossed more money for the music industry than physical media (compact discs) did.  While the music industry claimed that digital music would outstrip physical media sales back when Napster was in operation, the decade between its demise and the reaching of this milestone suggests that the music industry did not know how to effectively exploit the new medium and sales path.  After all, if pirating music had been the sole problem with the music industry making money off digital downloads, as soon as Napster was shuttered and iTunes started selling digital downloads, the music industry would have met their goal of selling more digital downloads than physical discs.

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Social networks come and go; that is rapidly becoming one of the realities of the Internet.  What is fascinating to see is how the different social networks attempt to appeal to different niches, whether they try to make their appeal from the interface device or to a target demographic.  LinkedIn appeals to professionals, Facebook appeals to friends with shared interests, Twitter appeals to cellphone users who are on the go; each social network has a niche.  Until now, no social network has been built around the sudden prevalence of video technology on smartphones.  That changes with the emergence of Viddy!

Viddy is most analogous to Twitter in that it is a social network built on very short communications.  Like Twitter, Viddy appeals strongly to the smartphone users who love to stay connected and share material through their smartphones.  As a more sophisticated way of social networking, Viddy uses videos as a platform for its network!

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For companies in the technology sector, having a sense of the marketplace and the potentials of both your company and the consumers you service is essentials.  This means having corporate executives who are strategic thinkers.  The ideal corporate officer for the tech market must balance a sense of pragmatism and vision for multiple product releases and market scenarios.  Arguably, the person most responsible for anticipating the needs of the company and executing the plans that adapt the company to changing market conditions is the head of Strategic Planning and Operations.  For Autodesk, that person is Moonhie Chin.

Moonhie Chin is the Senior Vice President of Strategic Planning and Operations for Autodesk, a software company that primarily makes animation and art software.  Chin is a powerful executive who has been working for Autodesk since 1989.  As the Senior Vice President of Strategic Planning and Operations, Moonhie Chin is responsible for leading the team that keeps Autodesk competitive around the world.  If falls to her to allocate the infrastructure of Autodesk – in materials and personnel – to determine what products the company will release and when they will be available on the market.  In her role of Senior Vice President, Moonhie Chin must not only be aware of the demands on the supply chain at Autodesk to ensure they manufacture their products in a timely fashion, but the forthcoming products by competitors as well.  Chin has to anticipate the consumer and corporate trends to position Autodesk for success.  Given that Autodesk has been steadily growing, with increasingly more popular products, since Moonhie Chin took over as Senior Vice President of Strategic Planning and Operations, she is clearly doing the job right!

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