Computer Support Blog

Storage can be a serious pain.  Whether it’s because someone is a college student and constantly moving back and forth between school and home, or because someone has recently moved to a smaller home in a new city on temporary basis, finding adequate storage options that are affordable and convenient is often difficult.  Storage centers often end up in remote areas due to the required space, and it is not always simple to retrieve stored material from them.  This reality is why so many people choose to have friends or relatives hold items for them if they live close by to the area.  It’s easy to pick something up stored in a garage.  Now, there is a cool product named StowThat that depends on a business model where anyone with convenient, extra storage space can rent that space to those who want to avoid traditional storage units. Read more »

Dealing taxes and tax law compliance is a nightmare and a headache for small businesses everywhere.  Every state and county has different sales tax regulations.  It can become even more complicated when one starts to consider issues such as tax-exempt customers.  Just as companies hire business IT support services to help with complicated computer issues, they also have to hire special consultants to deal with sales tax compliance quite often.  Cool person in technology Scott McFarlane believes that there is a better way to handle sales tax compliance when running a small business.  He founded Avalara to help companies who sell products nationally to handle tax issues without headaches or unnecessary difficulties. Read more »

Repair costs and quality for any type of machinery can be seriously nerve-racking.  Whether it’s computer repair, appliance repair or anything else, there is a general fear among consumers that repairs will cost too much or not last for very long once complete.

Cool person in technology Art Shaw knows this issue is especially prominent when it comes to automobile repair.  Shaw founded RepairPal to aid consumers in finding good quality car repair for fair prices.  Shaw’s company provides people with an online directory of mechanics, all with grades on quality from both RepairPal and previous customers.  Shaw wants people to use RepairPal to become more educated on care repair shops and avoid an unfortunate situation where a bad shop rips a customer off with poor work on their automobile.  In theory, by using RepairPal consumers will be able determine which shops produce excellent repair work. Read more »

Many corporate executives once dismissed online video back in the early age of the Internet.  However, it has now become a viable alternative to mainstream television and media for many people.  Sites like YouTube, Hulu, DailyMotion, and others have all helped users create content viewed by thousands daily without the help of major corporations.  This shift in media has allowed many people to start producing content with only their computer and creative ideas.

One popular type of user-created content found on video sites is the talk-show format.  Many people record interviews, product and media reviews, and discussions on video sites.  Users usually post these talk shows on a regular weekly or monthly schedule similarly to television.  This emulation of the studio style talk show has managed to get many creators viewers and fans. Still, the quality of the video is lacking when compared to similar shows on television.  This difference in quality is not surprising with such high production value for TV.  The good news is that a cool product named Vumanity may be able to change that for many content creators on the web. Read more »

Every salesperson knows that repeat business is invaluable when it comes to long-term revenue gains.  Creating a strong customer base with people who consistently come back to the same company for what they need forms a foundation that allows businesses to grow.  Whether the business is a restaurant, office computer repair company, plumbing service or retail shop, this principle remains the same.  Creating repeat customers is one of the most profitable things a salesperson can do for his product and company.  Cool person in technology Kevin Dykes believes he can help online businesses increase their customer retention rates with his new service RetentionGrid. Read more »

Busywork is one of the biggest time wasting activities for office workers everywhere.  Mindless data entry and repetitive tasks kill office morale, overall productivity and in general are a major drain on the workplace.  Processing invoices is one such tedious task that no one looks forward to doing at any small business that provides a service to its customers.  For most people, this sort of work is a necessary evil that they put up with only because that have to, given the situation. Read more »

Once of the few inconveniences of shopping online is the way in which the process limits the possible payment methods for customers.  Due to the nature of the system, customers must always pay with a credit or debit card when making any sort of payment online, whether it be a loan payment, rent, or just the purchase of a t-shirt.  This makes sense, of course, because there’s no viable way for users to pay with cash online.  At least, that was the belief until cool person in technology Danny Shader founded his new startup PayNearMe to give people the chance to pay for online items with cash.  Read more »

Making an impulse decision to do something nice for a loved one or a family member is hardly a rare occurrence.  While expending extra effort to do something thoughtful for another person usually isn’t really an inconvenience, it is unlikely that anyone will complain about a service that tries to make it easier to do so.  Cool person in technology David Bladow has created such a service with his Internet company BloomThat. Read more »

Screen space is precious to many people when using their phones or tablets.  Most of the appeal of mobile devices is their convenience, but it is anything but convenient to have a giant virtual keyboard block your view while trying to input information into an app or website.  The standard QWERTY keyboards on smartphones and tablets are often clunky and infamously lead to countless typos.  The problems were so severe that all mobile keyboards had to start using artificially intelligent grammar and spelling correction systems. These autocorrect systems and imperfect keyboards have caused many to seek help from mobile tech support professionals in the past. It only makes it worse that mobile keyboards take up so much screen space, making it hard to both input information on the keyboard and read information on the screen at the same time. Read more »

The quantified self is becoming a more and more popular concept in the world of technology.  Metrics, analytics, and measurements are no longer only the domain or marketing professionals and salespeople.  Consumers use fitness measurement tools like Fitbit to see how active they are and measure their health down to the calorie.  Taking data about the physical self is only just the beginning apparently.  Cool person in technology Nicholas Felton has created an iPhone app that measures your preferences, activity, productivity and personality as well.  This cool app goes by the name of Reporter and collects any data that a user gives it voluntarily to create a detailed profile about that person’s life. Read more »