Computer Support Blog

There is nothing new about popular companies or brands merchandising their name well outside the product that initially made the company famous, even in the technology sector.  One need look no further than Apple’s early 1980s line of windbreakers and Swiss Army Knives to know that the tech sector, like the media and celebrities, has long tried to make money off baubles unrelated to their technological advances.  As one of the most popular video games on the market for the last few years, one of the biggest licenses to stem from the technology sector is Angry Birds. 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 »

No matter how good your product or service is, if you do not have the right team of people promoting it, the marketplace may never know the true genius of your work.  In the tech sector, especially on the Internet, this is especially true; the Internet is so cluttered with information and services, you need to make yours stand out.  Even an established and successful Internet-based company like Salesforce must continue to find new clients in order to keep growing.  For Salesforce, the person in charge of finding those new clients is Hilarie Koplow-McAdams!

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With identity theft remaining one of the enduring problems with modern communications, it is unsurprising how many products and services there are that offer to protect your data.  When it comes to data storage, there are several products that encrypt your files to protect them, like the industry-leading Ironkey Flash Drive that makes transporting your data incredibly risk-free.  It is hard to find an analogous product when it comes to communications technology, though.  That is about to change, thanks to Silent Circle. Read more »

When your company is a multinational operation with many different divisions, the human resources department faces several challenges not faced by smaller businesses.  In the tech sector, many companies have corporate structures that are specialized to each continent or part of the world.  While having mirrored operations throughout the world may allow the company to specialize to capitalize on the abilities of the facilities in each area, it can create a real human resources nightmare.  To keep a company like that growing, you need a human resources specialist who can hire the executives needed to manage all of the disparate operations of the corporation.  For Imation, that person is Patricia Hamm. Read more »

In the computer world, there are so many technologies that it is hard to keep up with all of them.  Indeed, you might be surprised to learn that 3Dconnexion recently shipped its one millionth 3-D computer mouse; clearly it is not an obscure product, but somehow it has never drawn mainstream media attention.  Creations like the 3-D computer mouse are the result of tireless research and development by inventors.  In the case of the 3-D computer mouse, the ultimate design was the result of the efforts of Douglas Engelbart. 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 »

Finding women at or near top positions in the tech sector is at least as hard as it is to find them in prime management positions in the financial sector and other big businesses.  However, possibly because of the rate at which technology changes, women in technology sector professional jobs are often derailed from their career path by using maternity leave.  To acknowledge how hard working mothers work to balance both their family life and career, Working Mother magazine names one woman in business as their Working Mother Of The Year each year.  In 2009, that honor went to a woman in the tech sector, Blair Christie of Cisco Systems!  Blair Christie is so much more than just a working mother; she is the powerhouse who runs much of Cisco Systems’ global communications and negotiations efforts. Read more »

Big business transactions happen every day in the tech sector.  As more and more technology companies buy out their competition or diversify to stay relevant in a changing marketplace, it is sometimes tough to understand what specific transactions might actually mean.  Lately, there has been a lot of speculation that Google will pay $12.5 billion to buy Motorola Mobility.  This transaction has created a lot of buzz in both the tech sector and the business world.  There are several factors that make Google’s purchase of Motorola Mobility an atypical buyout. Read more »