Computer Support Blog

It is interesting to watch how the market reacts to a change.  Sometimes, the influence of a product or service is not realized until the product or service is removed from the marketplace.  Watching the market react to the shutdown of Picnik, a niche market online digital photo editing tool, has been a study in corporate loyalty and opportunism.  Fans of Picnik vociferously resisted the integration of the Picnik tools into Google+.  The market responded with the birth or promotion of several services similar to Picnik.  One of the frontrunners to replace Picnik in the Internet zeitgeist is Aviary. Read more »

Privacy rights are some of the most contentiously debated human rights.  Most people in the United States and other free societies treat privacy as an innate human right, a position which comes into conflict with the views of other governments, agencies within the United States government, and Constitutional literalists (there is no explicit Freedom of Privacy guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution).  As technology has improved, the debate over privacy rights has only become more divisive.  That debate was what inspired Phil Zimmermann to create Pretty Good Privacy. Read more »

Fans of digital photography – especially amateurs and those who do not have a lot of money for expensive, professional photo manipulation software – have been mourning the demise of Picnik.  Picnik is no longer an independent photo manipulation website, though its tools have been absorbed into Google+.  For those who might not want to join yet another social network, but enjoyed the look and feel of Picnik, there is now iPiccy. Read more »

With improvements to the Internet and the rise of Internet social networks, it is becoming easier than ever to connect and stay connected with members of your family.  At the same time, social mobility in the United States has made it commonplace for families to move around a lot and keeping track of how members of your family relate to one another can be a full time job.  To make genealogy simple, comprehensive and fun, Ancestry.com has now released Family Tree Maker Deluxe 2012. Read more »

The rise of the Internet social network has happened with such a speed that it is often difficult to say what the real enduring impact of the Internet social network has been and will be.  To understand what Twitter is trying to convey, as far as what the service might mean to communications and history, a very specific analytic tool had to be built.  That tool was TagWalk and the inventor of TagWalk is Tim Hastings! Read more »

Of all the social networks on the Internet, Twitter seems to be the one that is both the most trendy and least useful.  Limited to 140 characters, Twitter is basically an extended message board for your life where you keep anyone who might be interested up to date on where you are, what you are doing and/or what thoughts are going through your mind.  While Twitter might not be a bastion of deep thoughts or profound ideas, Twitter actually embodies perfectly the “social” part of social networking.  More than any other social network, Twitter acts as a barometer of just what is hip, trendy, and popular in the world at any given moment.  Twitter is the snapshot of both popular culture and current events.  But, seeing the big picture Twitter is trying to reveal can be hard.  For that, you need TagWalk. Read more »

The fax, the facsimile which was essentially a scan sent from one machine to another over the phone line, is a dying technology.   Scanners and e-mail provide essentially the same services and they are easy-to-use technologies used in every industrialized nation on Earth.  However, e-mails do not have the legal authority of faxes.  As a result, Fax Over Internet Protocol technology has emerged as a new industry.  Choosing the right FOIP provider can be a challenge.  Three of the best are: Read more »

If you are not hip to all of the latest trends in the tech sector, there are some exciting new technologies and services of which you should be aware.  While technology is changing rapidly, there are some new trends that appear to be here to stay and that you may well want to utilize.  One of the big emerging markets is Cloud storage.  Cloud storage is like a storage locker or a safe deposit box for your files; you transfer your files and documents to a special site on the Internet and they are, theoretically, protected and are available to you from any computer device you use.  The latest major Cloud storage service is Google Drive. Read more »

Technology, as you know, changes exceptionally fast.  It seems like just last year that Cloud-based services were just appearing on the Internet!  Now, Google is releasing its personal Cloud service and, in advance of that, the competitors who got the jump on Google are revising their services to remain relevant.  Some of the well-established personal Cloud services may be changing the services you have come to rely upon!  Some of the most significant changes are coming to the following: Read more »

There are many computer enthusiasts who enjoy the process of building their own computers.  It can be a real challenge to assemble your personal computer from the bottom up.  For those computer lovers who enjoy the process of assembling their own computers, the next step after making their own personal computer is assembling their own server from scratch.  For that, you have to start with a powerful, flexible motherboard.  For that, the TYAN S7050 Motherboard is an exceptional option! Read more »