Computer Support Blog

Talent finds a way of finding its niche; people who are extraordinary seldom remain in positions that could be filled by virtually anyone with similar training.  As a result, it is largely unsurprising when a talented person leaves a good-paying, even prestigious, position to strike out on their own with a vision that is unique.  That is exactly what Carly Bellis did when she co-founded Impaktu. Read more »

Every year, Time Magazine does a “Man Of The Year” spotlight feature in December.  While the feature article has morphed into “Person Of The Year,” “Woman Of The Year,” and “People Of The Year” over the decades and individual issues, the criteria for the newsworthy person to nab the prestigious cover article has remain unchanged.  The Time “Man” Of The Year is the person who received the most news coverage in a given year, which is why both beloved U.S. Presidents and despised world leaders have frequently made the Man Of The Year list multiple times (Joseph Stalin, for example, was a Time Man Of The Year twice and FDR received the honor three times).  If a similar principle were to be applied to the stock market, it is hard to imagine a Stock Of The Year for 2012 other than Facebook. Read more »

If you are going to pay money for a streaming video service, like Netflix, Amazon Prime, or Hulu Plus, you might as well invest in the equipment that allows you to get the most out of it.  While some might be content to watch movies and television on their tablet computer or smartphone, those who truly love cinema will want to watch their programs on the best system they own.  For most people, that is a home theater consisting of a high-definition television and a stereo system.  To connect your streaming service to such a system you need either a dedicated computer or a streaming player, like the Roku 2 XS Streaming Player. Read more »

Google has become known throughout the tech sector as one of the biggest companies from which engineers with good ideas may launch a business of their own.  Perhaps that perception developed because as Google defined itself in the early days of its company, its leadership did not want to be distracted by side projects.  Google did not start out as a company that was trying to be everything to everyone.  As such, the creative engineers that Google hired to build its revolutionary search engine often had ideas that they could only act upon when no longer with Google.  Sean Knapp was one of those engineers with a vision that did not quite fit Google’s plans. Read more »

Late last year, there was a news story that was anything but real news, despite how the technology and business press covered it: Verizon had outages.  Treated as huge news, because Verizon claims to have the “most reliable network,” Verizon was virtually tarred and feathered for having a few bad days last year, wherein the weather contributed to Verizon services going off-line.  What the sensationalists in the media and business sectors neglected to consider was that Verizon’s claim to be the “most reliable network” did not mean that the service would not fail; it is a claim that their network will fail less than its other major competitors!  Verizon, of course, got service back up and running, but there were weeks of analysis – i.e. how did this failure of service happen, who’s to blame for the failure, etc.  Now, it looks like tech sector enthusiasts are likely to endure a series of similar article. Read more »

One of the nice aspects of a successful product or service offered through the Internet is that frequently, clones pop up!  Every good idea offered by the Internet seems to be replicated for a different market or niche than the original site and it is interesting to see which services survive the competition and where the derivative sites outdo the original.  Netflix, for example, moved into the digital movie streaming business and when it found success with that, Amazon Prime and other, smaller, services were developed by competitors.  Now, there are many video streaming sites on the Internet, many of them specialized for a specific, niche.  For television lovers who want to be able to stream their favorite shows, there is Hulu Plus. Read more »

While there are many different types of people who are drawn to the tech sector for employment, there are only two types of leaders in the tech industry who have the ability to change the tech sector forever.  The most common industry leader is one who discovers a problem or idea within the tech sector to which they devote time, energy, capital and other resources to filling a niche or rectifying a problem.  For sure, many of these successful entrepreneurs reach a level of success where their company must diversify to continue its growth, but most leaders who change the tech sector do so by starting with a very narrow focus.  The other type of tech sector visionary is one who gets their hands into just about everything and tries to make an impact in many different ways.  Isabel Pesce Mattos is the latter type of tech sector visionary! Read more »

At last week’s Google I/O conference, many new products were introduced, not all of them ready for the marketplace just yet.  Most of the products were very much to be expected from the search giant who now seems to have its hands in everything.  Google, through its Android operating system has become more associated with gadgets in recent years, instead of just being considered an Internet software/search pioneer.  As a result, the fact that the I/O conference was used to generate enthusiasm (and preorders) for new products like Google Glass and Nexus devices was predictable.  What was truly audacious was the way Google declared war on Amazon and the Apple iTunes store by unveiling a new shopping platform: Google Play Store. Read more »

Quite a few creative individuals find that the art they love and skills they develop through higher education are not immediately profitable.  As a result, the current generation of would-be playwrights, painters, and photographers have largely turned to the tech sector for income while they develop the craft they are passionate about in their spare time.  As such, they end up as bloggers, digital artists and software engineers while they work in their off-time toward their “big break.”  One such artist who is leading the dual life in the artistic and tech sectors is Michael Kaplan. Read more »

Apple enthusiasts are, in many ways, an ideal type of customer for a big business.  The culture that surrounds Apple products makes virtually every new product release a resounding success.  There is such enthusiasm for new Apple products that entire websites are devoted to leaking rumors to keep that enthusiasm active and engaged on a daily basis.  Add to that, Apple enthusiasts are very slow to quit on an Apple product or service.  To wit, despite consistently declining customer satisfaction rates with the service, virtually everyone who has an Apple iPad, iPhone, or iPod utilizes iTunes.  To reward Apple customers for years of putting up with a system that has not kept up with its other products, Apple is revamping iTunes. Read more »