Latest Tech News
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Acrossair: Getting There Is Half the Fun
Thursday July 29, 2010 06:00
When I first heard the term "augmented reality," I expected nothing short of corneal implants and tiny, cloud-connected computer systems that run on body heat and live just under your skin. I imagined something that would add layers upon layers of information to the visual world we see every day.
Source: TechNewsWorld.com
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Adobe Gets Its Say on Microsoft's MAPP Security Channel
Wednesday July 28, 2010 15:24
Adobe has joined Microsoft's MAPP program, which provides members with information about security vulnerabilities before Microsoft releases its monthly patches. This will let Adobe, which has been plagued by security flaws, notify MAPP members about vulnerabilities in its apps so they can fix those problems more quickly.
Source: TechNewsWorld.com
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Google Gets Playful With Facebook Rivalry
Wednesday July 28, 2010 12:47
Google's "Facebook killer" came a step closer to reality Wednesday, when it was revealed that the company has been talking with game makers for potential inclusion of their wares on a new social network. Originally brought to light by a tweet last month from Digg Founder Kevin Rose, the new "Google Me" offering could include games from Playdom, Electronic Arts' Playfish, and Zynga Game Network.
Source: TechNewsWorld.com
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Extensions Ride Shotgun in New Safari
Wednesday July 28, 2010 12:13
Apple on Wednesday released Safari 5.0.1, the latest version of its Web browser. It has extensions enabled by default, as well as security patches. The extensions include tools for Twitter and other social networks, news and shopping. They are organized into categories and are available at the Safari Extensions Gallery.
Source: TechNewsWorld.com
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Is the IT Pendulum Winding Down?
Wednesday July 28, 2010 08:00
If you've been in IT long enough, you've probably heard someone observe that, for as long as there have been computers, there has been a long, slow pendulum swing between centralized and distributed computing paradigms. From mainframes, to remote terminals, to timesharing, to PCs, to client/server, to mobile devices, to cloud computing -- the pendulum has been easy to discern, though much harder to explain.
Source: TechNewsWorld.com
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Regulators Take Aim at Genomics
Wednesday July 28, 2010 06:00
The genomics industry, which provides reports about disease risk, ancestry, and drug reactions based on one's DNA, came under fire last week as a Congressional Committee held hearings and the Government Accountability Office released an unscientific "study" of the sector. The GAO reportedly says that "fictitious consumers received test results that are misleading and of little or no practical use."
Source: TechNewsWorld.com
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LOCAL SOLUTIONS
It’s 3:45 pm on Thursday afternoon at a medium sized company. The payroll department is in the middle of printing the paychecks every employee is counting on receiving tomorrow morning. The computer crashes. Thomas gets a frantic phone call and arrives in their office 20 minutes later. The entire office breaths a sigh of relief when he solves the problem and checks are printing again by 4:15 pm. There is plenty of time for the payroll department to finish their task without anyone having to work overtime.
A high exposure attorney begins to gather his supporting documents for the trial set to begin at 8:30 am in the morning. He discovers that all of his supporting document files are nowhere to be found on his computer or in any data backups. There is no time to recreate over 100 hours of work between now and early the next day. The panicked lawyer dials Thomas in a complete frenzy. Thomas calms the man down and arrives on the scene a half hour later. The lawyer is ecstatic when Thomas recovers the missing files and trial begins without a flaw.
Frank Adoption Center relies on Thomas for all of their IT needs. He has been their computer solutions and tech support guy since 2002.
Thomas Forrester also builds custom computers. One woman had him build a special computer in 2004. He has done all needed maintenance on the client’s machine over the years. The client has never needed any type of tech support until the beginning of 2009. Thomas was there right away to provide the solution for her emergency when she called for assistance.
GLOBAL SOLUTIONS
After spending countless hours preparing a movie to be shown at his parent’s 50th wedding anniversary. The family is leaving for the celebration to be held in Virgina in less than 5 hours. The client gets ready to perform the simple task of writing the movie file to a disc and his computer crashes. He reboots the computer and the computer of course quickly crashes again. With no hope of getting the PC repaired in time, the guy locates our website and sees that I am available for instant chat and remote support.
I give instructions to the horrified client in Kansas (1000 miles away) on how to direct the PC to share itself with me. Then I locate the software glitch causing the crash, fix the problem and remain connected with the client until he has the memorable movie burned to DVD. I have him play the disc in the DVD player to ensure everything is now repaired. The movie plays flawlessly in Kansas! The man can’t thank me enough for coming to his rescue and his parents are overjoyed about the video when it is played at their golden anniversary party.
The mother of a middle school student contacted me through the website worried about her daughter’s Internet habits. It seems the girl is routinely found at the wee hour of 2:00 or 3:00 am chatting online with “friends who should be in bed themselves”. The woman also has two other children and is worried about their Internet use as well. I explain to her that I can put a software lock on the PC that will not allow the computer to access the Web during certain time periods.
The client then instructs each computer to share itself with me and I install the locks appropriate for each child’s bedtime. The woman tests it out that night and can finally get a good night’s rest knowing that her children are sleeping and not surfing the Internet at an indecent hour.
A woman who was assigned the task of giving a Power Point presentation to her office in one week contacted me over the website. Her dilemma is that she has never used Power Point before and she has to make a lot of changes to the basic pre-assembled presentation her boss gave her. Obviously, she has given presentations before, but has never had to use Power Point until this assignment.
We get her PC connected to mine remotely and I give her a basic lesson on editing Power Point slides. Over the course of the next few days, the lady has a few more questions and I am again able to help her with each of them remotely. By Wednesday, she had her presentation completed and I gave her a lesson on controlling the slide show. This allowed her to practice doing her presentation and be completely confident in doing so at work on Friday. She was amazed at how easy it was for me to help her through the entire experience. Friday arrived and her presentation went so well that she was given a promotion. Because of her slide show presentation the company it was prepared for became a multi-billion dollar account for the woman’s employer.