Computer Support Blog

Samsung Electronics, in addition to making very reliable computers, is one of the largest, most effective, multinational corporations on Earth.  With strong products in the personal computer, smartphone, and tablet computer markets, Samsung seems to have its fingers in all of the most profitable pies in the tech sector!  The success of the company is no accident, though; it comes from having a strong management team, both in Korea and the United States.  Dale Sohn is an integral part of Samsung’s leadership in the United States. Read more »

In the tech sector, major fields can change with alarming speed.  A few years ago, for example, the idea of streaming movies and music from the Cloud was a far-fetched notion and even the leaders of big businesses in the tech sector were unsure how to capitalize on such an idea.  Now, there are several companies and services that offer streaming video and it is a huge business.  Given the rapidly-changing nature of technology, human resources personnel for media technology companies, like Netflix and Hulu, have their work cut out for them.  When they make a hire, they have to evaluate how the candidate will work for the company as it is now and how it might radically change in the future.  In the case of Netflix, managing the personnel is made much easier thanks to Tawni Cranz. Read more »

The tech sector is, in many ways, the final frontier for driven individuals who have innate talent and simply need an outlet for it.  On the production end, having a great idea and learning to program it can make you the next Mark Zuckerberg or Martin Kleppmann.  On the business side of the tech sector, many companies reward experience and success over formal education.  Tom Jones is an executive who is proof that experience, charisma, and consistent success may be more of a commodity in the tech sector than a formal degree. Read more »

The notion that each person wears many different masks in the course of their lifetime and in different groups, is a very old idea.  How you interact with other people and what you choose to show one group of person in your life changes based on very old social mandates and ideas.  With the rise of the Internet and the subsequent explosion of social networking sites, you put quite a bit of information about yourself online every year.  Unfortunately, all of that information may create a much jumbled view of who you are and may be mixed in with information about other people who happen to share the same name as you.  Now there is a new site that has the sole goal of helping you create a single, focused, online profile that collects all of your disparate elements in one place.  That site is Vizify and it is very cool. Read more »

Following the rise of consumer and privacy activists to defeat the Stop Online Piracy Act earlier this year, the reaction to the defeat both online and in the tech sector has been interesting to watch.  Many of the leaders who organized the fight against SOPA have formed organizations, like the Internet Defense League, to create watchdog positions and communications networks to prevent future SOPA-like legislation from passing.  Many businesses decided to beef up their legal department so they could better understand the potential consequences of such legislation to their specific business.  Amazon.com hired Jamie Gorelick to its Board of Directors. Read more »

Even with the rise of the smartphone, the need for specialized personal safety devices persists.  For sure, a smartphone may be very helpful in a medical emergency or when there is a threat against your life.  However, with so many smartphones running sophisticated programs, one must often unlock their smartphone and wait for it to boot to a menu screen from which you select the applications you wish to use.  The time it takes to unlock your smartphone may be the moments – especially in a heart attack or assault situation – you need to actually be able to make an emergency call.  Fortunately, as communications devices have become more sophisticated, so too have the specialized emergency/personal safety devices.  One useful personal safety device is the ZOMM Wireless Leash Plus. Read more »

Connecting advertisers and potential customers through all of the digital devices the average person has today is a daunting task.  In fact, very few companies have effectively managed to exploit every possible device and network as a viable revenue stream.  Even sites traditionally known for their success using ad revenue on the Internet, like Facebook, have had some issues with monetizing on a mobile platform.  PubMatic is a company that, in 2006, saw how the Internet was branching into a multiplatform media no longer simply utilized on home computers and developed software that allows advertisers to spread their message effectively across every type of computing device.  Mukul Kumar is the software engineer who makes the PubMatic vision work! Read more »

The name Hallmark Cards is virtually synonymous with greeting cards, much the way people refer to MP3 players as iPods or inline skates as Rollerblades.  To its credit in the rapidly changing world, Hallmark Cards has worked very hard to keep with the times and it has a robust online presence.  The physical greeting card manufacturer effectively competes against many online digital greeting card sites and Hallmark Cards continues to innovate.  Seeing the intense interest in mobile computing among many of its fans, Hallmark Cards has released the Hallmark Go Cards application! Read more »

Online and mobile payments are a growing industry.  One of the most recognizable names in the virtual payment industry is PayPal.  PayPal rose to prominence as a spin-off of eBay and as eBay grew, PayPal synergized with it in such a way that it rapidly gained the dominant market share for online payments.  However, with the rise of the smartphone, new mobile services like Dwolla, are steadily eating into that market share.  While the Technical Officers at PayPal work to increase PayPal’s mobile influence, it is Ranjana Clark who is retaining and winning over new customers for the company. Read more »

The concept of a social network is actually a very simple one: you log into a network, provide information about yourself and develop a channel to share interests and information with other people in your life.  As well, you may use a social network to expand your circle of friends by starting conversations with likeminded people who share some of the same interests as you.  One of the coolest products on the Internet, is expanding the perception of what a social network can be by offering options that make for a very real photo network!  The service is the Ceiva PicturePlan Photo Delivery Service and it is innovative, fresh, and very cool. Read more »