Computer Support Blog

Since the founding of the United States, one of the fundamental freedoms of the nation has been Freedom of the Press.  Made possible by Freedom of Speech, Freedom of the Press was intended to keep the citizenry educated and informed, the theory being that such measures could prevent tyranny.  It is a great theory.  However, over the years, political machinations (yellow journalism), business interests (media consolidation) and sloth have weakened the Fourth Estate of the United States.  The final blow to Freedom of the Press may well come from the tech sector as the tech sector is currently eroding some of the last definitive standards of the mainstream press. Read more »

For many people, the idea of teleconferencing was a novelty idea in television shows like Star Trek and Mission: Impossible!  In one of the most pragmatic translations of science fiction into technological fact, communicating virtually instantaneously using both visual images and an audio transmission is now a reality.  One of the coolest pieces of hardware that makes this possible is the Polycom Unified Conference Station. Read more »

The role of Chief Information Officer at a tech company is often one that straddles the responsibilities assigned to a Chief Strategy Officer and a Chief Marketing Officer.  The position usually requires someone who has both incredible product knowledge and a strong sense of where the market for the product is headed.  That type of rare strategic mind can help guide a company’s technological and systems development decisions.  For Visioneer, Walter Thinfen has repeatedly proven that he had that type of strategic outlook! Read more »

So far, 2012 has been a particularly brutal year for patent fights within the tech sector.  It is almost as if every software giant and major manufacturer of electronic devices, tiring of having to produce new products, equipment, and programs, collectively decided that they were just going to try to sue their way to continued financial growth!  All of the major tech companies – Apple, Google, Microsoft, etc. – have been going to court the last few months to menace one another with lawsuits over violations to patent laws with huge dollar figures attached to the motions.  Apple Computers, seeing the Samsung Galaxy Nexus as a genuine threat to its iPad, sued Samsung and won an injunction to have the device (temporarily) removed from Google Play.  This was a significant move as Google is counting on the Galaxy Nexus, which utilizes the Android Ice Cream Sandwich operating system, to boost end-of-Quarter sales.  While many of the fights over patents have been convoluted, mean, and ultimately unprofitable, two companies have decided to suspend hostilities over patents.  Yahoo! and Facebook announced late last Friday that they have declared peace on the patent front. Read more »

Personal computers may no longer be incredibly expensive, but the truth is that – especially in a recession – people are looking for any reasonable way to save money.  Certainly, one good option can be to upgrade components of your computer as opposed to buying a new computer outright.  Now, it is possible to save money and time by upgrading your hard drive(s) in such a way that you do not have to stop using your old hard drive.  By swapping out your current hard drive with a new hard drive (or drives) you can continue to use a single computer with multiple configurations.  To make it work, though, you need an easy way to swap out your hard drives.  For that, there is the Genica 5.25” IDE Mobile Rack Removable Tray! Read more »

Despite the current recession, the tech sector continues to have a strong need for professionals.  Start-ups, especially, need highly-skilled, technical minded employees in order to translate the Founders’ vision into an actual product.  However, the process of hiring good people can be a time consuming one and it falls outside the skill set of many people who are focused on hardware, software, coding, and other non-people-related tasks.  As a result, one of the smartest early hires in a start-up can be to hire a brilliant recruiter.  Raquel Atkinson is one such recruiter in the tech sector. Read more »

About fifteen years ago, the consumer software market was all abuzz over voice recognition technology.  You could buy programs that, after a training session that created a template of your specific voice, intonation, and speech patterns, could (supposedly) recognize vocal commands.  Between tragically slow computer processors and comparatively limited hard drive space relative to the demands of such vocal recognition training programs, many consumers discovered that voice operation of their computers was more of a boondoggle than a benefit.  Now, with applications like Siri from Apple, voice recognition has progressed to the point where it is a practical way to interact with many computer devices.  So, what is the next step; what is like voice recognition was fifteen years ago to push the envelope forward?  That would be thought recognition and it is no longer just a science fiction concept! Read more »

It is almost surprising how very much product diversity there can be in a simple piece of computer hardware.  Take, for example, external hard drives.  External hard drives all do the same thing; they store your data.  But, there are a multitude of different variations based upon your individual data storage needs.  If you need space, there are now 1 TB external hard drives.  For those who need speed, there are USB 3.0 external hard drives and for those who need long-term storage, there are solid-state drives that appear to last indefinitely.  One of the most intriguing combinations of security and speed comes in the Aegis Padlock DT. Read more »

The development within the tech sector of the all-in-one printer/scanner/fax machine/photocopier has all but killed the standalone photocopier market.  In fact, the companies that clung to their corporate strategy of denial of the trend that all-in-ones would take off rapidly contributed to the demise of those companies.  Xerox, one of the world’s largest photocopier companies, however, made many early strategic decisions that bought it the time needed to refocus, restructure, and rebound both in the marketplace and the stock market.  Xerox has had a rough few years and now, they are counting in part on Luca Maestri to turn the business around. Read more »

Jargon, words specific to an industry, profession, or setting, tends to pop up with what a layperson might find to be an alarming frequency in articles that pertain to developments within the tech sector.  As a result, readers are bombarded with numbers and terms that many writers simply assume their readers are familiar with: USB, FireWire, Ivy Bridge, etc.  To help demystify the tech sector and make technical jargon more accessible to non-tech readers, we occasionally explore a common jargon term.  Today’s exploration is API. Read more »