Posts Tagged ‘IT’

Locking Columns and Rows in Excel

Thursday, March 25th, 2010

If you want to freeze a row of titles or categories so that you can keep them in sight as you enter data further down your spreadsheet, Microsoft Excel has a handy Freeze Panes function. To lock a pane, use your mouse to select the row below or the column to the right of where you want to freeze. On the Window menu, click Freeze Panes.

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YouTube opens auto captioning

Thursday, March 25th, 2010

You Tube is a video sharing website that has been profoundly successful over the recent years. People and companies are able to upload videos as well as having the capability to share information on social media websites. They have recently created an automated captioning beta program to the public, for the purpose of helping the hearing-impaired. This feature is only accessible for videos that are in the English language. You Tube is planning on adding other languages and video up loaders can utilize this feature to translate captions in English into any 50 languages. A restriction or two on the auto captioning feature is that it won’t work on videos where there is a lot of background noise and muffled sounds. Ultimately, the auto-captioning feature might help YouTube monetize its videos.

Auto-Captioning works by combining translation algorithms with Google’s automatic speech recognition technology. Auto-captions generate a natural step utilizing speech recognition. Video owners are able to download auto captions for a video by signing into their account and looking for the “English Machine Transcription” track and then clicking on the download button. There are various functions that come with auto-captioning, some of which include helping people word search video content to translating into a person’s native language.

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Twitter on the roll

Tuesday, March 23rd, 2010

Twitter is a social networking website that shares what is happening with you, and what you are doing on a daily basis that others may find interesting and some can relate to. You can also follow others that you find interesting, for example: your favorite DJ, Singer, and Actress. It is a great way to see what is going on with your Friends /Family members without feeling the need to contact them if you are short on time for conversation.

With technology improving Twitter has announced that it will be introducing “@anywhere” which is a new podium that will allow partner websites such as Amazon, Bing, Citysearch, Digg and eBay to link to Twitter. This service will give the access to twitter users to send and receive messages while they are browsing through these websites. This means that users will be able to follow related tweets without leaving the site and basically this will allow partners to communicate in a more efficient manner in their conversations and their product positioning with Twitter. @ anywhere can be employed with a few lines of JavaScript code. 

@anywhere is going to decrease communication obstacles across different social media websites and portals. It will allow conversations to flow rather than having to manage so many different characteristics to engage around content.  Right now people can make different comments on each site but they have to repost on twitter. @ anywhere will make it simple for people to share contents and dialogues. 

I think this is a fantastic idea. This service will also help marketers in building their brand reputation and promoting their products. It is a tactic for people to involve themselves in conversations that will make them talk about a product or service that they might not even be aware of. A fact is that consumers tend to purchase products that they find out through word of mouth or that are recommended by others. Reading tweets about a product review that links to the actual page, such as Amazon would enable sales of the product.

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Introducing: Blackberry Enterprise Server Express – FREE

Wednesday, March 17th, 2010

Blackberry has released their newest business server, the BlackBerry Enterprises Server Express edition.  Express is a free download, and the licenses are free.  It will wirelessly sync email, contacts, and calendars to blackberry mobile phones.  Express supports up to 75 users on a shared server, up to 2000 users on a dedicated server, and over 2000 when used with a dedicated SQL server.  It can be installed on a messaging server or an Microsoft Small Business (SBS) server.  Blackberries on either BES (BlackBerry Enterprise Server) or BIS (BlackBerry Internet Service) plans can connect to it. 

Did we mention it’s absolutely free? If you are using BIS (BlackBerry Internet Service) to redirect your email to your mobile phone, this will be a great product for you. For more information call StoneHill at (949) 218-1258 or visit BlackBerry’s official release page.

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Apple’s center problem: creating a craving for consumers about the Ipad

Thursday, March 11th, 2010

 The Ipad was launched in January and Apple has been extremely excited about their latest inovation. However, it seems that the company is facing a new marketing challenge in the manner they are broadcasting their latest category of technology. If Apple fails to introduce their new product, they could be facing marketing challenges with their consumers in the future.

 Apple has been lucid about certain information provided to the consumers. They know when the Ipad is expected to hit stores which is April 3rd, also what kinds of iPads will be available for purchase, which are the WiFi models.  In addition, they know that consumers will be able to pre-order their iPad via online delivery or Apple Store pick up.

 What is uncertain and unknown is how they can broadcast their message in a fun and grasping manner for their target market. Apple is aiming to establish a method to ensure that the significance of the iPad will successfully reflect the originality. Different from the Macbook, iPod and iPhone, this time Apple is launching a new device category to their existing consumers as well as a new market. It is a fact that certain consumers have already established their mindset on what they are expecting from the iPad. but with customers who are still undecided, if Apple does not execute the introduction of their product properly by establishing this new category in the consumers’ minds, the iPad may have a weak position relative to other products established in this category.

 The IPad will enter the market to compete with the new wave of the mini computer, and will hope to introduce a new touch to a relatively new market.  The trick is to find a way to differentiate the IPad to the customer.  Apple is known for its unique touch with its devices, and to achieve the same success as it has with the past, it seems that the marketing efforts should focus on what’s unique and “Apple” about the IPad.

 One way that Apple can deal with this situation is to position the iPad as an electronic media delivery device. Making a point out of the fact that people can connect with books, newspapers, magazines and online media as easily and effortlessly with the iPad.

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Utilizing Twitter to create Business Relationships

Monday, March 8th, 2010

Twitter is a service for friends, family, and co–workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing? Why we use twitter is because even basic updates are meaningful to family members, friends, or colleagues—especially when they’re timely. With Twitter, you can stay hyper-connected to your friends and always know what they’re doing. Or, you can stop following them any time. You can even set quiet times on Twitter so you’re not interrupted. Twitter puts you in control and becomes a modern antidote to information overload. Twitter is now moving forward to another level in order to create potential business relationships for SMB owners. It is starting to become a good promotional campaign to create new leads for a company, as well as being a cost effective method to market businesses.

Twitter can help create business credibility, market your business and grow your online & offline network. Twitter offers an array of creative options that can enhance the marketing efforts of your business in an efficient manner. First, Twitter can provide a user friendly and effective process of communication between clients and companies so that both parties understand the core values and ethics of each other. Furthermore, it is a rapid approach for sharing high quality content that is essential to consumer needs, as well as the exchange of information about the organization that customers, colleagues and others may be interested to learn about.  You can market your business by publishing your Twitter handle on all direct mailings, email newsletters, blog posts and newsletters through the website and diverse marketing channels. Growing online networks can involve hosting weekly Twitter chats to bring your business community together as well as connecting your Twitter account to LinkedIn and your company website. It may further provide users the opportunity of using the Advanced Search to track down local conversations and also using the Twitter Search to track when potential customers mention a competitor. Additionally, it is a good promotional venue for offering promotions such as coupons to community members for certain business purchases.

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Tech motivation for HP: Smart phones

Sunday, March 7th, 2010

Hewlett Packard is one of the world’s most flourishing manufacturers of desktop computers, printers, servers, and laptops. With a strong and reputable consumer brand, the company has managed to grow its services and expand to provide services to a large number of businesses. During the first quarter of the company’s development, HP managed to establish a sales growth of 8%. On the other hand, HP has surprised analysts with their declining market performance with their hand-held products including the iPaq Smart Phone. Their sales have dropped $25 million in the first quarter while Apple had a $5.6 billion market growth with their iPhone.

 HP has realized that because of the iPhone, Apple has managed to build more intensive relationships with customers. They have accomplished more than three billion software applications through the store which is directed to the iPhone.  Now, Apple is looking to repeat this with their latest invention which is the iPad, a tablet computer which was recently launched. Researchers at HP are using this as a motivation key for building the reputation of their hand-held products and  have talked about developing software’s and services that will let people print easily from their phones as well as manage and communicate their photos and communications more efficiently with each other through mobile versions of social networks

 It is expected that HP is to offer a smart phone in the coming year that will utilize the latest mobile version of Windows. Already, there is a lot of competition in the cell phone industry and it is a good idea that HP has announced to dedicate more of their focus on other products on the side of the Smartphone category.

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One of the Biggest Tech Shifts of Our Lifetime

Thursday, February 25th, 2010

Today, companies involve huge IT departments that are dedicated to storing and sharing extensive data. This means huge amounts of data and data servers being handled by companies who are at best minimally familiar with the ins and outs of computing. Presently there are more than 15 million computer servers operating globally. Every organization has to build its network for its peak demand leaving 80% of the running servers idle every day, which as you may imagine leads to huge waste of time and money for these companies.

There is an expansion of networks, computer storage and servers, and the growth has left companies wanting a new solution to their computing needs. “Data Utilities” will allow companies to discard their data storage infrastructure and hand off all their data storage and maintenance needs to third parties able to efficiently and responsibly manage them.  These data utilities will allow sharing of servers to meet the peak needs of companies without requiring the company to pay for and maintain the server during its times of lower demand.

The concept of data utilities isn’t all that new, and we all use them everyday.  For example, every time you share photos through services such as Facebook, snapfish, Shutterfly, Kodak, or Flicker, you are operating in the cloud and using a data utility.   Similarly, the online software suite from Google Apps allows users to generate and access information and spreadsheets exclusively online.  Users can create, edit, and share all sorts of files from any computer with Internet access.

Basically any kind of storage can be met by a data utility. It is estimated that the internet contains 5 million terabytes of data. That is just an initiating point since constant improvement will only increase storage demands. Data utilities will allow the collaboration of computing power, data storage, software applications, and other IT needs through a global network. It will permit businesses to concentrate on what to offer rather than technical know-how of how to offer the service.

At the time of great economic concern where cost efficiency is gold, the data utility trend has only hastened.  IT decisions are being made based on economic reasoning as well as a technical viewpoint. Data utilities enable companies to utilize resources on demand and pay for them when needed.

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Integrated Backup & Recovery Platform

Thursday, February 18th, 2010

Businesses of all sizes are witnessing an explosion in the volume of data they hold. Whether it is the result of the internet, email, or increasingly heavy and media rich application software, there is a massive growth in the volume of data all around. Data is increasingly being recognized as one of the real assets of a company, and losing this data would cause severe damage to any organization. An effective back up strategy is essential if your business is to be safe from the effects of data loss.

Companies big and small are under constant pressure to manage and protect critical data in complex environments, both in the data center and across multiple remote locations. Limited resources, complex IT environments and hyper data growth are inevitable no matter what size the business. Integrated Backup and recovery offers unparalleled data protection giving companies the ability manage the hyper growth without the hassle or drain on resources.  Data duplication, remote storage, remote content management, and enhanced data security are just some of the benefits of such system.

StoneHill’s system, Backup & Recovery Server (BRS), provides this solution by providing a backup disk product that sends data offsite to multiple information centers and turns itself into a virtual server in the event of a client hardware problem. It saves time and effort with an “install in minutes” feature as well as reducing back up storage capacity requirements up to 95%.  This recovery platform is incredible since it hacks backup windows up to 90%. The method provides a cost effective data security solution and is executed on an off-site disk backup system for rapid disaster recovery. The BRS system provides tremendous operational benefits since it is cost competitive, fast and secure.

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A Major Upheaval since the Internet: Enter Cloud Computing

Tuesday, February 16th, 2010
Diagram showing overview of cloud computing in...

Image via Wikipedia

Cloud computing is a new technology which essentially utilizes the power of a cluster of servers to power a website by dynamically scaling resources such as processing power, memory and storage among others. Each server in the cluster can be thought of as hosting the website.  If this is ambiguous to comprehend, then think of it as if your website resides on a super high powered server which never breaks down because this super high powered server actually is a combination of several servers working together.

It is a fact that maintaining a huge IT department is costly and a lot of corporations have no idea what networking and computer software involves. Cloud computing introduces strategies in which companies can send their files to people that can manage and handle them more effectively. With this facility, companies will be able to cloud into any kind of IT that they need including hardware, software, web hosting, networking, and etc. As a result, companies can focus on what to offer rather than technical details on how to offer their services. 

Some of Technology’s biggest names are leading the cloud computing system. Google’s internet based word processor and spreadsheet program are fighting to replace the desktop version of Microsoft’s Word and Excel.  But perhaps, even a better way to jump in the present is through the more vague service providers. These businesses provide the physical servers, hosting space, and means to communicate with them. Well-known names include Equinix (EQIX), Rackspace (RAX), and Terremark Worldwide (TMRK).

I believe there will be a vast amount of consolidation in the production over the next decade. The largest tech names will gulp up the less relevant players as a cheap way to gain admittance to the most recent breakthroughs. The new IT attitude of outsourcing will provide companies with more effective support and will further allow them to focus on what they do best, instead of struggling with computer issues and constantly breaking servers and networks.  

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