Computer Support Blog

There are a number of ways to try to make money off the Internet.  However, the study of analytics is becoming a big business for those who want to generate revenue from their websites.  Analytics is a study of both website content and visitor traffic patterns.  The big analytic programs, like Google analytics and Gnip, rely upon vast amounts of data and trends to provide the content providers of websites with the tools they need to monetize their site most effectively.  One of the emerging analytics sites on the Internet is Yieldbot.  The daunting task of creating their analytical tools falls to Soren Macbeth.

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As if the public needed another reminder to be careful what they publicly share on social networking sites, the FBI is currently working on a new project that will monitor Twitter, Facebook, and other popular sites for keywords related to terrorism and other criminal activity. The FBI is asking companies to create a means of sifting through all the tweets, posts, and pictures in order to identify present and future threats.

The main purpose of the software, once developed and put into place, will be to allow the FBI to identify terrorists and criminals by highlighting social networking posts that include certain keywords. Some of these keywords will include “small pox”, “leak”, “gangs”, and “2600” (the name of a popular hacking magazine).

In order to sort through the data, the FBI wants to have the flagged posts appear on a map. Ideally, the data would be color-coded according to threat level to make it easier to identify possible incidents of criminal activity.

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Given that the television has been available to consumers for almost a century now, it might seem odd to make the statement that there are very few people who “get” television.  As far as the tech sector and Internet businesses who are trying to exploit the classic medium, there are very few people who “get” television.  One need only look at how both Apple and Google have unsuccessfully attempted to market Smart TV products to know that the giants of the Internet simply do not understand how consumers use their televisions.  Ashwin Navin, on the other hand, completely gets the television audience and through his company, Flingo, he is enhancing the television-viewing experience.

Ashwin Navin is the co-founder and CEO of Flingo.  Flingo is virtually reinventing television . . . without trying to change the sloth-like way that most people view television.  While it might seem like a contradiction, Navin’s approach to Smart TV programming has been very different from the approach of his competitors.  Instead of trying to change television entirely, Navin and Flingo are working to enhance television.  Navin created Flingo to easily provide additional content related to television on smartphones, tablet computers and other mobile devices.  As well, Ashwin Navin realized that many people might enjoy seeing their YouTube and other videos on their big, expensive, sophisticated high-definition televisions.  A big initial application of Flingo was linking Internet videos to your television!

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With so many smartphones available to consumers, it can be overwhelming to try to shop for a new smartphone.  There are so many brands, so many operating systems, so many distinguishing aspects of the different smartphones on the market that it becomes a full-time job to keep up with the benefits and detractions of each different make and model of smartphone.  Fortunately, some of the new smartphones are delightfully simple in their pitch and intended market.  The Samsung Rugby Smart is one such smartphone and it is for active/sporty individuals.

The Samsung Rugby Smart is a brand new smartphone from one of the most reliable names in computer technology today!  The Samsung Rugby Smart is intended for the on-the-go, athletic type smartphone user.  In addition to having a more durable casing with a dust-proof seal, the Samsung Rugby Smart is waterproof.  Tested to resist submersion – not just a few drops of water, but actually being immersed in water! – the Samsung Rugby Smart will remain undamaged under a full meter of water for up to half an hour!  That means if you accidentally start swimming with your Samsung Rugby Smart, you should not lose your precious data or files stored on your smartphone!

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Brilliant ideas often need to come at the right time in order for it to be recognized.  Occasionally, there is an invention in the tech sector that fails simply because the marketplace was not ready for it or the supporting technologies did not exist to make it a success.  But the success of online digital photo editor Picnik is the result of a good idea hitting the marketplace at precisely the right time.  Much of the credit for Picnik’s success, then, comes from co-founder Mike Harrington.

At one point in his career, Mike Harrington was best known for the immensely popular video game Half-Life.  Harrington was the lead programmer for Half-Life and he was a co-founder of Valve, the software company that produced Half-Life.  Prior to starting Valve with Gabe Newell, Harrington was a software developer for Microsoft.  His work in the tech sector began in 1985 when he went to work for Dynamix as a programmer.  Following the success of Half-Life, Harrington took a sabbatical and traveled with his wife.

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The Internet has become a free-speech battleground.  On the one side of the argument are people who believe that Freedom Of Speech is an absolute and information should be freely disseminated.  On the other side of the argument are those who see copyright protections as essential to protecting intellectual property rights.  While the Internet has enflamed this old argument, it also provides many remedies to the conflicting philosophies.  One of the remedies is to make clear exactly what is available for free use without any copyright protections.  For people who wish to avail themselves of works that are in the public domain, there is Public Domain Sherpa.

Public Domain Sherpa is a guide to all things that you may find on the Internet for public use.  “Public domain” is a term in copyright law that refers to a work – be it a song, story, film, book, photograph or other work that usually could be copyright protected – for which there is no copyright owner.  That means that items that are “in the public domain” may be used by artists, publishers or in any other medium freely.  There is no one you would have to pay royalties to in order to use an object in the public domain.  Because works on the Internet may not be properly annotated with the copyright information, and ignorance is no excuse in the eyes of the law, you might need a guide online to what is in the public domain.  That is where Public Domain Sherpa comes in!

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As companies rise and fall in Silicon Valley, it is no surprise that the big tech companies frequently see employees migrate from one popular company to the next big thing.  While some of the big tech companies actively poach employees from their competitors, other tech companies seem to just attract a lot of employees from the companies with greater name recognition.  In the case of StumbleUpon, the comparatively small Internet company has a surprisingly high number of employees formerly employed at Google.  One of the most significant ex-Google workers who is now vital to StumbleUpon is Japjit Tulsi.

Japjit Tulsi made a lateral move in 2011 when he became StumbleUpon’s Vice President of Engineering from being Google’s Director of Engineering.  While at Google, Tulsi was responsible for creating Google Analytics, which is one of the standard-bearers of online traffic analysis.  That level of programming genius made him very attractive to StumbleUpon.  Prior to Google, Japjit Tulsi was a part of Microsoft’s executive development program.  At Microsoft, Tulsi served as a group manager in the engineering department.  Prior to Microsoft, Tulsi studied at Punjab University where he abandoned a law career in favor of the tech sector.

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Even during the current worldwide economic instability, most everyone would like to be able to donate to charity and help out others.  But just as educated consumers consider the corporate philosophies of big businesses, it is also wise to educate yourself about charities to which you donate.  While a charity will always try to put the most positive spin on themselves in order to solicit donations, objective criteria should be used to determine whether a charity is worthy of your donation or not.  For that, there is Charity Navigator.

Charity Navigator is an Internet site that provides information on charities, much the same way Open Secrets provides information on political donations.  Evaluating objectively using records supplied to the government for tax/accounting purposes, Charity Navigator uses a series of consistent criteria to evaluate the health of a charity.  This allows you to both compare charities and view charities that come close to an ideal using Charity Navigator.

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Demand Media had a pretty rough 2011, though its Fourth Quarter earnings were actually better than expected.  A provider of videos, blogs, and other media over the Internet, Demand Media has been working to transform the way people use the Internet for education and entertainment.  While the company has been growing, Demand Media’s Board has been buying back its stock and the company is not quite where the executives and analysts thought it would be.  Dave Panos is the man who will change the direction of Demand Media!

Dave Panos is the Chief Strategy Officer of Demand Media and his plans for the company are ambitious.  Because Demand Media is known for delivering original Internet video content the company is in competition with many distribution channels, like YouTube.  Panos organized a strategic partnership with competitor CoverItLive.  By pairing Demand Media and CoverItLive, Panos helped increase the video base of Demand Media dramatically, which allows Demand Media to reach a much wider audience.  Having the vision to partner with potentially vulnerable competitors is part of what makes Panos a truly great Chief Strategy Officer.

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In the midst of the worldwide recession, as companies like Facebook prepare to make billions of dollars overnight, there are still some websites devoted to giving on the Internet.  The giving sites are attempts to remind people who have Internet access that they live in a land of (comparative) plenty and that no matter how bad your problems are, there is someone, somewhere in the world, who has it much worse than you do.  You have the ability to help others at minimal cost to you.  That is the philosophy behind Philanthroper.com, which is arguably the coolest giving site on the Internet!

Philanthroper.com is a website that challenges visitors to donate to worthy nonprofits – 501(c)3 groups – each and every day (if at all possible).  The site has a very simple design and exists, not to make money for itself, but to raise money for charities most people have never heard of.  In order to encourage donations on a regular basis, Philanthroper.com only allows donations from $1 – $10.  The site’s founder hope that by limiting the amount of the donations, you will be encouraged to come back each day because giving was not that difficult the day before!  On the other end of the equation, founder Mark Wilson hopes to conclusively illustrate that many people doing a little bit each day adds up to a lot.  By having many people pooling a fraction of their resources, they may still do a great deal of good.

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