Computer Support Blog

As privacy concerns and free speech issues become part of almost every news cycle, it is unsurprising that the relationship between technology companies and governments around the world has never been more important.  Scientific progress and the speed of social media have been growing at a far faster rate than the U.S. Government has legislated.  So, it makes more sense than ever for tech companies to hire individuals who have experience in the Federal Government.  For Twitter, that made Katie Jacobs Stanton a very smart hiring choice. 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 »

In January, activists from all across the political spectrum came together to inform Congress that they did not want the Stop Online Piracy Act to pass.  Through actions like a coordinated blackout on January 18 to businesses lobbying heavily in favor of the bill, the defeat of SOPA stands as a great example of how representative democracy can truly work.  Despite the defeat of the bill, there have been lasting reverberations from Congresses attempt to legislate the Internet.  One of the changes that will become more evident when Congress reconvenes is an active presence of concerned citizens and companies.  The presence is the Internet Defense League. Read more »

With the 2012 election cycle heating up, more and more voters will be hearing about lobbyists and corporate influence in Washington, D.C.  Every industry has lobbyists, including the technology sector.  Few companies, however, keep their lobbyists in prominent positions.  Comcast Corporation, the nation’s largest cable, communications and entertainment company, keeps their principle lobbyist as one of their corporate executives!  Her name is Melissa Maxfield.

Melissa Maxfield’s official title is Senior Vice President of Federal Government Affairs for Comcast.  Comcast, as a large communications company, has a keen interest in legislation involving copyright protection, Internet distribution and manufacturing relationships with subcontractors in foreign countries.  In order to ensure that Comcast’s interests are respected and existing laws are enforced, Melissa Maxfield spends much of her time for Comcast in Washington, D.C.

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When purchasing new computer equipment, now more than ever, customers are aware of the energy consumption of their hardware.  The rise in electricity costs and increased interest in environmental protection has led most consumers looking for computers and appliances to consider the energy consumption of their products before they make their final purchase.  Fortunately, with computer products like computer monitors, the energy-efficient options are obvious through Energy Star certification.  The Energy Star certification is a powerful visual tool for consumers that indicates a product has superior energy conservation capacity compared to other, similar, products of the same type on the market.  What you might not know about Energy Star certification is that it comes from a U.S. government organization, the Environmental Protection Agency.  The chief Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency is Lisa P. Jackson.

Lisa Jackson is one of the most effective activist Administrators in the history of the Environmental Protection Agency.  Jackson was one of Barack Obama’s first confirmed appointees when he took office in 2009 and since she took the post, she has been tireless in promoting environmental preservation and protection.  One of those efforts was to increase the EPA standards for Energy Star certification, which would require manufacturers to meet even more stringent standards for their monitors to receive the certification!

Jackson was a natural choice for Administrator of the EPA, though she had to sacrifice a promotion to Chief of Staff to the governor of New Jersey when nominated for the post.  As Environmental Protection Agency Administrator, Jackson would have the greatest influence over a wide range of environmental policies that had been of interest to her for the bulk of her career.  Lisa Jackson attended Tulane University after working with Clean Sites in the aftermath of the Love Canal Disaster.  From Tulane, she pursued her Master’s Degree in chemical engineering from Princeton University where she decided that what she truly wanted to do was save the world’s resources from environmentally irresponsible businesses.

Fresh out of college, Jackson worked for the EPA and her specialty was in the political efforts of the Administration.  While she worked as both an engineer and an overseer on several important clean-up operations, Jackson made her mark at the Environmental Protection Agency by proposing important changes to how the EPA worked at disaster sites.  The Agency adopted many of those proposals, so Jackson had left her mark on the EPA long before she took over as its Administrator!

Under Lisa Jackson, the Environmental Protection Agency has prioritized protecting children, the elderly and other low-income demographics.  Part of the policies she has enacted and proposed involves reducing carbon dioxide emissions and protecting the quality of air and water for all citizens.  Because so many technology manufacturers use processes that could potentially pollute the water and/or air, Lisa Jackson has been using the EPA to watch them more closely!  With her commitment and record of environmental protection, Lisa Jackson is a great EPA Administrator!

About RESCUECOM:

RESCUECOM provides computer repair and computer support, 24/7: Meeting every tech support need including data recovery, virus removal, networking, wireless services, and computer support for all brands of hardware and software. For computer support or information on products, services, or computer repair, visit https://www.rescuecom.com or call 1-800-RESCUE-PC.

For More Information, Contact:

David Milman, CEO

315-882-1100

david@rescuecom.com

The Internet may well be the last frontier in the United States, if not the world.  After all, the Internet has almost singlehandedly made the word “pioneer” relevant again.  Much of the pioneering spirit embodied by the Internet comes in the form of trailblazers who simply took something tedious in the real world and made it simple, cool, or relevant, in the digital universe of the Internet.  Sheila Krumholz is one such Internet pioneer.

Sheila Krumholz is the Executive Director of the Center for Responsive Politics, a non-partisan political watchdog organization.  Krumholz is responsible for transforming the tedious Open Secrets book of records to OpenSecrets.org, one of the most flexible, insightful and accurate political websites on the Internet.  OpenSecrets.org is, by and large, an online database of campaign contribution records for every United States Federal election from 1990 until now!

At the University of Minnesota, Krumholz studied international relations and political science.  What seemed to interest her most, however, was the strong relationship between money and politics.  While studying politics, she began researching.  This research took her to Washington, D.C. where she rapidly immersed herself in the filing cabinets of Congress.  Hired by the Center for Responsive Politics, she poured through every campaign finance record she could find to trace exactly what corporations were influencing each politician at the national level.  Krumholz would probably still be digging away in dusty basements had she not developed OpenSecrets.org.

As the scale of presidential and congressional elections in the United States became financially unwieldy, Krumholz saw a potential niche on the Internet that was missing.  She saw that the Internet was giving everyone who had a political opinion a chance to raise their voice, but that there was a severe shortage of facts and archives for retrieving facts on campaign finance.  Krumholz led the team that made the vast database of Federal Election Commission donation records available to anyone who was connected to the Internet.  She conceived of OpenSecrets.org as a resource for all citizens. Krumholz wanted to make the site into more than just a simple page about the Center for Responsive Politics.  With her vision, that is what the site became!

Krumholz is a patriot as much as she is a pioneer.  Serving now as the Executive Director of the Center for Responsive Politics, her role is much less technical than it was for the years while she was helping to develop the award-winning website.  While she remains deeply interested in the statistical analysis tools OpenSecrets.org continues to develop, her day to day concerns involve fighting for campaign finance reform.  An expert on the subject, Krumholz and the Center for Responsive Politics are exceptionally careful to not endorse any specific plan for campaign finance reform while continually educating citizens and politicians on the inarguable links between campaign donations and political actions in Washington.

Sheila Krumholz effectively blazed a trail using the freedom the Internet provides to help educate every United States citizen on the inner workings of the federal government!

About RESCUECOM:

RESCUECOM provides computer repair and computer support, 24/7: Meeting every tech support need including data recovery, virus removal, networking, wireless services, and computer support for all brands of hardware and software. For computer support or information on products, services, or computer repair, visit https://www.rescuecom.com or call 1-800-RESCUE-PC.

For More Information, Contact:

David Milman, CEO

315-882-1100

david@rescuecom.com

Over the past several years, the efficiency and storage capacity of computers and data centers has increased enormously.  Most companies, from small businesses to multinational corporations, have taken advantage of advancements in technology to cut the costs of data storage.  The importance of data storage with strong Internet security cannot be overstated, but new hardware allowed for greater reliability at a lower cost.  The latest in the string of wasteful spending revelations, the Federal Government trended in the opposite direction during the same period.

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