Computer Support Blog

Water is a resource many people take for granted.  After all, it is the exception to the rule when you turn the faucet on and nothing comes out.  Some of the neatest gadgets on the market – for scientific, municipal, and personal, use – pertain to monitoring various aspects of water.  From high tech gadgets like the YSI ProODO Dissolved Oxygen Sensor to the low-tech water filters many people use, water has inspired many useful products.  One of the neatest water-related products is the PR-32 Pressure Recorder. Read more »

The technology sector is filled with people who appear to never have heard the adage “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!”  In the case of websites, especially social networks, programmers who originally design the site tend to strive for functionality over style.  One need only recall the iconic scene from The Social Network wherein Sean Parker and Mark Zuckerberg discuss monetizing The Facebook and come to the conclusion that it was too soon for that.  Cool things aren’t about monetizing.  The people who use websites at their inception and stick with the site do so because there is something enduringly interesting about the site that they cannot find elsewhere on the Internet. Read more »

In the tech sector, the ability to get goods to market is exceptionally important.  Equally important is having a reliable supply chain that provides raw materials and manufactured components to your manufacturing and assembling plants.  For that, the tech sector relies upon the shipping industry.  But the best industrial shipping organizations in the world are surprisingly high-tech businesses of their own.  One of the world leaders, Panalpina, is a major support for companies throughout the tech sector.  Leading Panalpina through its own IT revolution is Monika Ribar. Read more »

With the release of the latest iteration of Apple’s iPad, there are new accessories one has to consider!  While many of the accessories for the prior iPad releases still fit the new iPad, if you are upgrading the hardware, why not give your accessories an upgrade to reflect your current sense of fashion?  One of the first, and coolest, accessories specifically released for the new iPad is the MagFolio For iPad. Read more »

If you are building your own computer, or upgrading the one you have, it might be tempting to include a Blu-Ray drive.  After all, Blu-Ray disc drives are finally coming down in price to the point where it is no longer so intimidating to make them a part of your computer system.  If you want more than the basic Blu-Ray drive, you might want to look at the Lite-On iHES212 12x Internal Blu-Ray Combo drive. Read more »

The tech sector, with its IPOs, patent disputes, and extensive research and development operations, can be a real legal minefield.  Most major companies in the tech sector find themselves, at one point or another, needing expert legal advice.  The companies that frequently avail themselves of their full legal options for managing conflicts, or who find themselves on the defensive from legal challenges raised by competitors, often retain an executive-level lawyer, the General Counsel.  For LSI, the top lawyer for the company is Jean F. Rankin. Read more »

As technology has improved and advanced, advertisers have worked very hard to find new ways to exploit it.  Especially with new forms of communication technology, advertisers try to integrate product placement and utilize the new mediums to reach tech users.  For those who lived through the meteoric rise of the Internet, the days of slow modems also meant a time when you could go online and not be bombarded by advertisements all over your screen.  The video game market has been one that is much tougher for advertisers to crack into.  Advertisers want to reach the demographic, as video game players spend several hours at a time focused on gameplay, when they are not interacting with any other medium upon which they could encounter advertisements.  Xbox Live is now trying to get users to “play through” advertisements from big businesses. Read more »

When an executive leaves a company, or is forced out of their position at the top, it is always interesting to see what type of position they take afterward.  In the tech sector, there are an uncommon number of executives who – after running multi-million dollar operations with thousands of workers – start their own, very small, companies or take over the management of a tiny start-up.  When Jeff Lee left DViCO, that is exactly what he did! Read more »

When one thinks of cool products and cool places to visit on the Internet, the U.S. Government is hardly a name near the top of the list.  When many people think of the federal government, they think of the IRS (often negatively) or political in-fighting.  The Federal government actually runs several vital, completely apolitical, organizations.  One of them is the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.  And, believe it or not, NOAA has one of the coolest websites on the Internet! Read more »

With enthusiasm continuing to rise for Christopher Nolan’s final Batman film, The Dark Knight Rises, Batman is cool once again.  In fact, while interest in virtually every other super hero seems to be more subject to fashion and trends – Superman, for example, lost a lot of popularity during the 1990s when people were more interested in edgy and dark superheroes and antiheroes – Batman seems to be one of the most consistently popular superheroes in the United States.  Perhaps it is because Batman represents an attainable level of heroism, at least in the minds of most people.  Batman is, after all, just a man.  Sure, he is a billionaire, but financial concerns aside, he is just a ridiculously smart guy with a lot of very cool gadgets.  Now, there are two gadgets that could allow you to be more like the Batman by essentially replicating Batman’s famous grappling gun! Read more »