Computer Support Blog

Good language software may be very hard to find.  Even so, if you are visiting China there are many options for software that teaches you Chinese.  To learn Japanese, there is Jibbigo.  If you are planning a trip to the Orient, why not continue your trip through Asia and visit Russia?  Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia has opened up to tourists from the United States and the country has much to offer travelers there.  However, unlike traveling to Europe, visitors to Russia need to have at least a rudimentary knowledge of the Russian language.  For that, there is Russian Complete Edition software! Read more »

With so many changes coming to the tech sector and the distribution of media, it is understandable that evaluating those changes has often been difficult to assess.  While television has mechanisms built in, like the Neilsen Corporation’s statistical analysis, how can industry leaders determine if you are watching their program from your smartphone or tablet computer?  When users stream videos from the Cloud is not as easy to chart the impact of your programming.  At least, it was not easy to chart before Deb Roy set his mind to the issue!

Deb Roy saw the way social networking was changing the landscape of communication at the same time as technology was advancing to provide users with more instantaneous shared experiences.  Deeply interested in the relationship between the distribution of media and news through technology, Deb Roy began an ambitious project to collect the statistics that would inform him – and others – as to the actual effect of the technological changes.  That was when he and Michael Fleischman founded Bluefin Labs. Read more »

Living in a city and owning a car can feel both frustrating and pointless sometimes. Most of the day your car sits in a parking space with no one using it. You have to have a car to get to work, get out of the city for vacation, or go across town to meet a friend, but while you are at work or staying home for the day, your car remains idle, doing nothing. What if your car could be making you money when you are not using it? What if the car could pay for its own monthly payments? Would you be willing to let strangers rent your car for a few hours when you do not need it?  If you answered “yes,” a car sharing service, like the ones offered by the Getaround, RelayRides and JustShareIt apps, might be for you. Read more »

There are a so many exceptionally cool USB flash drives.  As USB flash drives evolve from the standard USB 2.0 to USB 3.0, it is interesting to see how companies are promoting the newer technology.  As usual, some companies are highlighting fun and collectability with their new USB 3.0 flash drives.  Corsair, the manufacturer of durable computer accessories, is going an entirely different way.  With the Flash Survivor USB 3.0 32 GB USB Flash Drive, the company has created the most solid, damage-resistant USB flash drive yet! Read more »

In the tech sector, there are many important companies whose influence is not felt as widely in the United States as it is in other parts of the world.  One company that is still gaining footing in the United States is Archos.  Archos has a significant market share in the consumer electronics market in Europe, especially France.  Archos produces its own line of portable audio and video players, tablet computers and netbooks.  The man who pioneers the various technologies for Archos is Yves Gregoire and he is an impressive engineer! Read more »

Hasbro is planning a busy 2012. First, there is the partnership with Zynga, which emulates the Mattel-Angry Birds collaboration. The toy company will be able to bring online games to the real world as well as making toys and accessories based on popular Facebook games like Farmville and Mafia Wars. Now, Hasbro has announced that it is updating some of its classic board games. Read more »

Anyone who has visited a historical site or virtually any tourist destination has seen graffiti.  At many destinations, unsightly graffiti covers most available surface. Often, graffiti is just names and dates from former visitors, but it can be much more than that. Some people even write or carve poems or song lyrics into whatever space they find available. Usually there are several visible layers of the graffiti and more underneath. It can be very tempting to add your own mark to that wall, bench, or tree, but what if there was a better, legal, way to leave a piece of yourself behind? Read more »

Virtually everyone in business knows that discovery and invention are the keys to future success.  Ironically, while most businesspeople know that invention is critical to the future of any company’s long-term health, very few businesses reinvest as radically as they need to in research and development.  The profession of “inventor” is all but dead in the United States.  Intellectual Ventures is one of the few companies that are investing heavily in revitalizing the American spirit of invention.  No one is more committed to the importance of investing in shaping the future than Intellectual Ventures’ President and Chief Operating Officer, Adriane Brown. Read more »

It is hard to play down the significance of the transistor in modern technology.  The transistor makes so many electronic devices operate and so many emerging technologies possible.  A single smartphone or laptop computer might have billions of transistors.  The transistor is integrated in virtually every major technology in the world and new developments in transistor technology may transform the tech sector yet again. Read more »

2011 saw some real changes in the world on online video streaming.  As the Cloud rose to prominence thanks to Apple and it advertising juggernaut, some of the traditional leaders in home media found themselves in drastically new positions.  Netflix, for example, was quick to reinvent itself as a digital streaming company, but in the process of price hikes and trying to distance themselves from their DVD subscribers, the company had a much more erratic year than many in the industry thought they would.  With Netflix faltering, Amazon.com was able to make significant strides in the digital video streaming market.  Amazon.com now has a service called Amazon Prime that allows members to stream unlimited videos and receive free two-day shipping on all orders, for only $79 for a year.  Amazon Prime’s video streaming service is now a very cool way to get your movies and television programs on your computer.

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