Computer Support Blog

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 »

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 »

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 »

The real estate market constantly changes.  If you have ever bought a house, you know how fast bids may be accepted, how a listing that seemed ideal might have been off the market for months, or how a property you might have never known was on the market actually was available.  The Internet had not kept pace with the real estate world until Zillow.com appeared with comprehensive information about properties in the United States that are available for sale, for rent or is in any state of financial distress that might allow a buyer to get a steal of a deal!  To keep Zillow.com functional, stylish, and growing, the website has Kristin Acker. Read more »

StumbleUpon recently made some changes.  Guided by focus groups, StumbleUpon’s CEO authorized alterations to StumbleUpon with the stated purpose of making the site easier to use.  While not entirely eliminating the fun, random nature of StumbleUpon’s interface – which took you to websites that conformed to your stated interests – CEO Garrett Camp made a number of changes to the popular site.  In addition to putting graphic representations of interests on the front page and adding a search engine to the site, StumbleUpon now features Channels. Read more »

There is a somewhat ugly trend in the tech sector right now where the corporate philosophy seems to be “be everything to everyone.”  The behemoths of the tech sector – Apple, Google, Microsoft, etc. – are each struggling to capture the market share of virtually every division and idea within the tech sector.  When one company branches into mobile OS development, the others leap into mobile OS development and start developing their own search engines.  The result is that consumers are forced to ally themselves with one company’s many product lines or scatter their allegiance on a product by product basis, often ending up with incompatible technologies causing additional headaches.  One of the latest fronts is online mapping programs.  Looking to shore up their position in the market, Google is launching improvements to Google Maps in advance of Apple unveiling its new mapping service. Read more »

Right now, the United States economy is at an intriguing place that it has never been at before.  As the country continues to emerge from its recession, the housing market remains understandably depressed (understandable because financial issues in the housing market precipitated much of the current economic malaise).  While a shaky economy and even more problematic housing market are nothing new, this is the first time since the Internet became a household tool that these conditions have existed.  This means unprecedented opportunities for fast access to information about real estate.  Rather than searching the totality of the Internet or allying yourself with one realtor, you might want to check out Zillow. Read more »

If “people who need people are the luckiest people,” what does it make people who need to find out all they can about people?  Perhaps a better question would be, what does it make people who make the tools for people to find out about other people?  Perhaps that question could be best answered by Saad Zniber, co-founder of Yatedo. Read more »

If you spend time going through the corporate biographies of executives in the tech sector, it is very easy to get bored.  The story with so many executives is a familiar one: they went to business school, they took a business job, and they became a business leader.  Wow, someone started on a career path and they ended up at the end position of their chosen career path!  This is a pretty predictable story and one that plagues so many corporate biographies.  So, it is the atypical executive who stands out.  Gurdeep Singh Pall is just one such executive!

Gurdeep Singh Pall is the Vice President of Information Platform And Experience at the Microsoft Corporation.  In that role, Pall developed and promoted the Microsoft Lync system which has made video telecommunication more of a reality than ever before.  Pall is responsible for many important aspects of Microsoft’s Bing platform as well, including its research and development and promotion.  His real passion seems to be for working on the Bing platform’s speech recognition, mapping and mobile applications.

Part of what makes Gurdeep Singh Pall’s story so interesting is how he ascended to the position of Vice President, Information Platform & Experience.  He began at Microsoft as a software engineer, like so many people do.  Like visionaries in the field like Steve Jobs and Bill Gates before him, Pall had a vision to solve a complicated computer problem and he helped to design the LAN Manager Remote Access Service.  With that heady accomplishment, he moved to the Windows NT development team where he made several valuable contributions to the emerging OS through several of its incarnations.  In 1996, Pall was recognized for his achievements in pioneering VPN, the virtual private network.

After that, the software engineer became more of an executive.  Microsoft promoted Pall to the general manager of Windows Real-Time Communications and he served as the Vice President of the Office Lync And Speech Group.  There, he continued to use his engineering experience as he guided the team to the release of Lync.  Pall holds over twenty patents for technology he developed, most of which is in the emerging field of voice over internet protocol.  He helped pioneer the computer telecommunications field; when we have actual video phones, no doubt they will be based upon programming Pall developed!

Gurdeep Singh Pall has had an interesting career with Microsoft rising fast in the company because of his innovative ideas and technical acumen.  It is hard to imagine what he will come up with next!

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 growing importance of the Internet to everyday life creates an ever-larger target for cyber criminals.  Internet security against cyber crime is vital for businesses and individuals alike.  Malicious software corrupts systems, destroys data, and allows the theft of identities or banking information.  Hackers looking to make a quick buck by exploiting weak Internet security are nothing new.  A recently released report about malicious software and where it is housed online brings the issue into sharper focus.

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