Computer Support Blog

It can be remarkably easy to become attached to a computer.  Many times, it is only a form of obsolescence – old software that does not run a new program, slow Internet connection speeds, inability to interface with other computers or programs because of outdated hardware – or absolute failure of a computer that compels a user to upgrade their system.  Especially when the economy is in a state of recession, it is hard for many people to justify spending a lot of money on upgrading a computer.  The good news is that many computer systems – especially laptop computers – are more durable than ever.  Even if you manage to keep your computer running longer through care and regular maintenance, the data storage demands on most people’s systems continue to rise.  If you want to keep your cherished, familiar, laptop computer longer, one affordable upgrade you may want to make is replacing your hard drive.  The PQI 256 GB Solid State Disk is a great option for that! Read more »

Research and development is, arguably, one of the most exciting aspects of the tech sector.  Technology firms that have diverse interests invest quite a bit of money in research into emerging technologies or fantastic ideas and development of new products.  While a Chief Technology Officer of a firm that specializes exclusively in creating niche products through an extensive research and design department might seem like an incredible job that would satisfy the tinkerer’s urge so many engineers and scientists have, it is hardly a mindset that makes for running a company with the bottom line in mind.  Such companies require management that fosters such a creative CTO, while still focusing on business interests enough to keep the company profitable.  For Raytheon BBN Technologies, the parent company of radical gadget-maker Digital Force Technologies, the executive who effectively straddles the fence between economics and pure science is Ed Campbell. Read more »

In the course of a company’s stock, there is a natural movement; no goes constantly up.  It is perfectly natural for stock values to rise and fall based on any number of a multitude of factors.  Yet, within the last twenty years, there has been an unrealistic expectation that tech sector stocks will go homogenously upward, even though there is ample evidence to prove that the stock market, especially as it pertains to the tech sector, is far more volatile.  Perhaps no tech sector company offered stock with more expectations and more difficulty in recent memory than Facebook. Read more »

The Internet has gone from being a convenient communications tool to being virtually indispensible to many computer users.  No longer only a source of information or communications, the Internet is now a growing form of expression (through social networking) and entertainment (through Cloud-based media).  That makes it more and more important to be able to stay connected to the Internet.  One device that can help people who travel frequently access the Internet easier is the ZyXEL USB Powered Travel Router. Read more »

The dream story of the American worker is one where an individual with an aptitude for a skill can find work at a big company to earn a living.  Over years, with hard work and additional training/education, the dream of the worker is to someday take over management of the company they started at.  That dream comes true with increasingly less frequency as competition, mergers, and radical shifts in the marketplace have companies rising and falling faster than ever.  But one of the great success stories for the American dream came true recently when Virginia Rometty took the reins at IBM! Read more »

It is developer’s conference time!  Following on the heels of Apple’s Developer’s Conference and the All Things D D10 Conference, where guests from all across the tech sector and media spoke, Google’s annual I/O Conference will start on June 27 in San Francisco, California.  The three day conference is sold-out and is expected to include a slew of new product releases that should reach the marketplace by the end of the year.  Rumored products being announced at the I/O Conference this year include: Read more »

With the rising need for storage space on computers, it is unsurprising that some of the hottest products this year are 1 TB storage products.  The Terabyte is one thousand Gigabytes and while 1 TB hard drives are not actually new to the marketplace, they are finally coming down in price to where those in the market for a new hard drive or new computer should seriously be considering it as the new baseline.  One of the hard drives that has some interesting features and the Terabyte capacity is the AcomData PureDrive 1TB Desktop External Hard Drive. Read more »

Computer programmers are essential to the tech sector, which is why many tech companies try to recruit talented programmers right out of college and many tech companies provide their programmers with uncommon perks (the legendary Google cafeteria, for example).  The life of a software programmer can be a series of odd contradictions: long solitary hours of working alone on coding paired with massive collaborative efforts where a single programmer’s work is buried, without credit, within a larger project.  Most programmers seem to accept that as the reality of the job, joining large firms for the job stability and regular paycheck, content with the tradeoff that their names are unlikely ever to be recognized, even in the software programming community.  That, however, is not the path that Thomas Tempelmann took! Read more »

While there are many companies in the tech sector whose names and products are easily recognizable – Microsoft, Google, and Apple, for example – there are other companies whose names are frequently mentioned, but their product lines remain a mystery to the general population.  For example, many Americans would probably say they have heard of Oracle and know that it is a big business within the tech sector.  The population would be dramatically smaller, though, of Americans who could identify a specific product from Oracle.  In a similar fashion, “Quest” often appears on technology and business updates, but what the multibillion dollar company produces is unclear to many who do not have direct dealings with the company. Read more »

With so many different forms of digital media and digital storage devices, it can be a real hassle to share or swap files between devices.  While USB flash drives can be very handy for solving problems associated with data storage or file sharing, sometimes there are an inordinate number of steps between the original storage device and the flash drive.  For those who have many different types of devices that use different card-based media – like digital cameras, digital camcorders, and memory sticks – the Dazzle Multimedia Dazzle 6-in-1 Reader may be a real asset! Read more »