Computer Support Blog

Virtually everyone in business knows that discovery and invention are the keys to future success.  Ironically, while most businesspeople know that invention is critical to the future of any company’s long-term health, very few businesses reinvest as radically as they need to in research and development.  The profession of “inventor” is all but dead in the United States.  Intellectual Ventures is one of the few companies that are investing heavily in revitalizing the American spirit of invention.  No one is more committed to the importance of investing in shaping the future than Intellectual Ventures’ President and Chief Operating Officer, Adriane Brown. Read more »

Facebook loves to make changes. Facebook is always updating, rearranging, and adding new features to the site, but sometimes the changes come a little too rapidly. People are only just starting to use their Timelines, and now Facebook has another new feature – verified accounts.

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Video cameras have become such a commonplace accessory built into laptop computers that many young people forget that they can still be freestanding units!  Far from the clunky video surveillance tools of the film era, new IP cameras use wireless networks to transmit streaming videos from the camera unit to a secure, central router.  This allows you to use video cameras with much more discretion than ever before.  That does not mean that you should not have a stylish video camera, though.  For the perfect blend of style and functionality, the Zonet IP Camera is the IP camera to buy.

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We all hate Spam. Not the processed meat in a can, the email messages that we did not want to receive. Whether they appear as advertisements for products we do not want or emails for services we have no interest in, everyone has received spam at some point. Sometimes, though, spam emails can be far more dangerous than annoying ads – they can contain phishing links that appear to come from a legitimate source.

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There are a number of ways to try to make money off the Internet.  However, the study of analytics is becoming a big business for those who want to generate revenue from their websites.  Analytics is a study of both website content and visitor traffic patterns.  The big analytic programs, like Google analytics and Gnip, rely upon vast amounts of data and trends to provide the content providers of websites with the tools they need to monetize their site most effectively.  One of the emerging analytics sites on the Internet is Yieldbot.  The daunting task of creating their analytical tools falls to Soren Macbeth.

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Every new computer comes with at least a free trial of one of the many popular security scan programs. People recognize that security scan programs are important and tend to not take the time to fully read something that appears to be one of them, but which is in fact a scam, because they are afraid of getting a computer virus. By not reading everything that pops up on the screen, many people unknowingly infect their computers with malware and viruses. Many scams pretend to be legitimate security programs by telling you that you are unprotected or have a virus already, in order to gain access to your computer.

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As if the public needed another reminder to be careful what they publicly share on social networking sites, the FBI is currently working on a new project that will monitor Twitter, Facebook, and other popular sites for keywords related to terrorism and other criminal activity. The FBI is asking companies to create a means of sifting through all the tweets, posts, and pictures in order to identify present and future threats.

The main purpose of the software, once developed and put into place, will be to allow the FBI to identify terrorists and criminals by highlighting social networking posts that include certain keywords. Some of these keywords will include “small pox”, “leak”, “gangs”, and “2600” (the name of a popular hacking magazine).

In order to sort through the data, the FBI wants to have the flagged posts appear on a map. Ideally, the data would be color-coded according to threat level to make it easier to identify possible incidents of criminal activity.

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Some companies in the technology sector work very hard for years before their brand is successful enough to have name recognition outside the industry.  In 2010, two of every five personal computers that were sold used a mother board by computer manufacturer ASUS.  Even so, it was not for a few years later that ASUS began to market computers effectively enough to compete in the computer manufacturing market.  The transition from support company providing vital internal hardware to a recognizable brand of its own comes as the result of Jonney Shih’s hard work.

Jonney Shih is the Chief Executive Officer of ASUSTek Computer, Inc. (commonly known as ASUS).  Shih has been the Chairman and CEO of ASUS since 1993 and he has presided over the company’s longest period of sustained growth.  In fact, it is hard to imagine where ASUS would be if Jonney Shih were not guiding the company.  Virtually every major policy that has made ASUS a household name resulted from Shih’s influence and direction.

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Even though YouTube is the largest and most popular video-sharing website, it is not the only one. Vimeo is one alternative for independent filmmakers. Vimeo has gained a large following but it will never be as big as YouTube because it limits the content on the site to videos that the users have made themselves.

The site is popular with musicians and independent filmmakers because it is an easy way to highlight their talents in a community of like-minded people. Users get good exposure on the site when they post their own videos. Many hope to use Vimeo as a springboard for their careers in film or music.

Vimeo announced that it would be completely redesigning its website soon. The video hosting site wants to make the experience it provides better than ever before and more easy to use. Probably the most noticeable change will be a larger video player covering most of the width of the page. Users will also discover new ways for them to share their unique content, easier navigation around the site, and more privacy features.

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Biometrics is a term used mostly in reference to fingerprints, retinal scans, and facial recognition. Biometrics is a way to identify exactly who a person is, by comparing a unique biological feature to those already in a registered database. Biometrics is nothing new; people have been using fingerprints as a means of identification for literally thousands of years. The ancient Chinese would sign a document with their handprint or fingerprint rather than a name.

The first modern uses of fingerprinting began as far back as 1877 when Sir William James Herschel used fingerprints to prevent fraud. Since that time, our methods of and uses for biometrics have advanced quite far. The government uses facial recognition software to identify immigrants, fingerprints help police catch criminals, and retinal scans are used to keep high-security buildings safe.

Already, we are seeing the use of biometrics in computers as well as these other applications. Many models of laptops come with a fingerprint scanner, and soon our other computer devices may have biometric capabilities. This is a growing field in computers because it is more secure and very easy to use.

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