Computer Support Blog

Good ideas are only executed as viable business endeavors when the founder of a start-up assembles a team that can make that vision become a reality.  Recently, Vivian Rosenthal won a Next Generation Award for being one of the top five female leaders in the tech industry as honored by L’Oreal.  Rosenthal won her award for founding and managing GoldRun, a website that allows users to place images of real world people and objects into a digital setting based on GPS technology.  The ambitious project has allowed users and advertisers to interact in exciting new ways.  Rosenthal’s vision created GoldRun, but people like Tiffany Grace Ng built and maintain it! Read more »

The relationship between media – movies, music, and television – continues to get closer and closer.  In fact, one of the most significant channels with which to promote new movies or programs is the Internet.  The Internet has numerous sites that act as repositories for clips, news, and historical archives for film, television, and music.  One of the most prominent sites for cinephiles is the Internet Movie Database, but for those who are much more interested in critiques and analysis, Rotten Tomatoes has rapidly grown into one of the coolest sites on the Internet. Read more »

As more and more people get cooler and more expensive home electronics devices, it is hard not to feel insecure leaving home.  While the obvious solution would be to get a security system, the media portrays home security systems as drastically ineffective.  In fact, most people would be hard pressed not to be able to recall a time when they watched a movie or television program and a security system was compromised by cutting the wires from the cameras to the monitors.  One of the obvious, real-world, solutions to that problem is to assemble a security system that does not have wires that can be cut.  For that, you might want the Uniden Guardian Wireless Video Surveillance System. Read more »

Strategic partnerships are, largely, built upon the needs of groups, companies, or individuals at the time the partnership is made.  As is frequent in the business world and tech sector, times change and the needs of companies in both fields are dramatically altered.  As a result, strategic alliances between tech companies and prominent businesses are occasionally dissolved.  One of the latest partnerships to call it quits is the alliance between Microsoft and NBC which resulted in the MSNBC news channel and website. Read more »

For many people, the idea of teleconferencing was a novelty idea in television shows like Star Trek and Mission: Impossible!  In one of the most pragmatic translations of science fiction into technological fact, communicating virtually instantaneously using both visual images and an audio transmission is now a reality.  One of the coolest pieces of hardware that makes this possible is the Polycom Unified Conference Station. Read more »

So far, 2012 has been a particularly brutal year for patent fights within the tech sector.  It is almost as if every software giant and major manufacturer of electronic devices, tiring of having to produce new products, equipment, and programs, collectively decided that they were just going to try to sue their way to continued financial growth!  All of the major tech companies – Apple, Google, Microsoft, etc. – have been going to court the last few months to menace one another with lawsuits over violations to patent laws with huge dollar figures attached to the motions.  Apple Computers, seeing the Samsung Galaxy Nexus as a genuine threat to its iPad, sued Samsung and won an injunction to have the device (temporarily) removed from Google Play.  This was a significant move as Google is counting on the Galaxy Nexus, which utilizes the Android Ice Cream Sandwich operating system, to boost end-of-Quarter sales.  While many of the fights over patents have been convoluted, mean, and ultimately unprofitable, two companies have decided to suspend hostilities over patents.  Yahoo! and Facebook announced late last Friday that they have declared peace on the patent front. Read more »

If you are going to pay money for a streaming video service, like Netflix, Amazon Prime, or Hulu Plus, you might as well invest in the equipment that allows you to get the most out of it.  While some might be content to watch movies and television on their tablet computer or smartphone, those who truly love cinema will want to watch their programs on the best system they own.  For most people, that is a home theater consisting of a high-definition television and a stereo system.  To connect your streaming service to such a system you need either a dedicated computer or a streaming player, like the Roku 2 XS Streaming Player. Read more »

The challenge many advertisers and brands continue to have is connecting with customers, especially new customers, utilizing the Internet.  Many Internet-savvy potential customers already use ad blocking software or, because of the prevalence of ads around the Internet, mentally block out all but the most inspired Internet ads.  With social networking, the challenge of connecting advertisers and potential clients is still one that experts in the industry are figuring out.  Trying to crack the formula to utilize the power of social networking for business purposes is what Josh Emert is involved with now and with GoChime, he may be on the right track! Read more »

Today, we have a disturbing experiment for you to try, assuming you are not using any form of advertisement blocking software and cookies are enabled in your web browser (they usually are if you have your computer set to automatically enter your login information when you visit your most frequented websites).  Open a search engine and initiate a search for something you have never looked for before and shares no commonality with any website you already frequent.  For example, search for “computer glasses” or, even more specifically, “Superfocus.”  Once the search results come up, visit every page on the first page of search results.  Tomorrow when you go online, if not sooner, consciously look at the advertisements on the websites you usually frequent.  The odds are better than even that whatever topic you searched in depth yesterday will appear heavily saturated on the sites you visit today.  In fact, because of Web Targeting, the odds are significantly biased toward advertisements you see being related to that random search topic. Read more »

Today, there are few technology-related aspects of life that are as important as having a reliable Internet connection.  Most people can easily live without advanced television features or even the telephone capabilities of their smartphone, but finding oneself trapped without a reliable connection to the Internet is enough to make you pull out your hair.  One of the essential tools for virtually any business or home, then, is a good router.  The ADSL2+ Four Port Ethernet Switch Router is a worthwhile router for home or business use. Read more »