In the current economy where budgets are getting tighter but the need for great tools still exists here is a post I came across that satisfies the needs of both.
The Apple iPhone 3.0 press conference seemed to reveal some exciting new enhancements to the current iPhone 3G model. Many of the features should have been obvious from the get go but alas they have arrived. Some of the features included in the 3.0 update are:
Custom applications for accessories
Embeddable maps
Push notifications
Cut, Copy and Paste (Finally!)
Landscape keyboard across all applications
MMS
Calendar gets CALDAV
Stock enhancements
New Search function for all applications
The 3.0 update is available today only as a beta to developers and should be released to the general public this summer. I can’t wait to upgrade mine!
I thought I would share a quick little favorite add-on of mine that I always use for my web browser. It’s called Foxmarks. If you are like me and have collected hundreds of bookmarks over the years, this is a perfect backup for your bookmarks. This little plug-in works by first creating an account at www.foxmarks.com and installing the add-on. It will then synchronize your existing bookmarks to their servers. You can install the Foxmarks on as many computers as you want and it will synchronize your bookmarks between them all.
Foxmarks works with Firefox, Internet Explorer and Safari. Which this great little add-on you can also have access to all your bookmarks from their website simply by logging in with the account you created.
The number one reason for performance bottlenecks is fragmentation. Even the fastest newest computers will eventually slow down when fragmentation is left unchecked. The computers hard drive is by far the slowest of the three main components of your computer: CPU, memory and disk. Because hard drive fragmentation dramatically increases the time needed to read disk files, booting up your computer, launching applications and opening files takes longer and longer until one day you get fed up and feel like you need a new one. That is, unless you know that fragmentation is the true cause, in which case install a defragmentation software your hard drive and restore the computer to peak performance on the spot.
Here are a few of my recommendations for some pretty good defragging software:
For years I have been using a windows mobile device for my emails and web browsing. I started off initially with the AT&T 8125 which was a mobile device with a slide out keyboard. This phone I liked but then as technology progressed it was upgraded to the 8525 model which had a faster processor. Finally the last phone I just ended up was the tilt aka htc tytn ii. This phone was probably my favorite windows mobile phone to date, but I felt that something was missing.
At about the time I had moved to he tilt I had bought my wife the first generation iPhone. Now this is a person that is not tech savvy and felt like she wouldn’t have a use for such a phone, but she went along. After using her iPhone for about a couple of weeks she couldn’t believe how easy it was to use and how functional it was for her.
After experiencing this and noticing how responsive the user interface was, I decided to get one for myself and after two months of using it, I think I actually like it better than windows mobile. I think mostly because the interface is more responsive plus looks cleaner, and I love the on screen keyboard and most of all the Apps store! I think I am addicted to it. I find myself downloading and installing at least one app a week. In fact, I just wrote this whole post from my iPhone.
Has anyone else had a similar or better experience moving from another mobile device to the iPhone? I’d like to hear about it!
I’m sure most people have a few websites that they visit on a weekly or even a daily basis only to find out that there is nothing new to read. Going from site to site, typing in each website address or clicking on your bookmarks or shortcuts. Instead of going out to 10 or even 100 different wesbites to see what is new and exciting, how about if you could see all your favorite websites all on one page and only one place to visit for all the updates on your favorite websites that you would normally be visiting manually?
Let me introduce to you a technology that you may have not heard of, its called Really Simple Syndication or RSS for short. Its everywhere, and most likely available on all your favorite sites.
Here’s how it works:
First get a RSS reader, this part is easy. Lets start of with some choices that are free and pretty effective. There is Google’s Reader application, Bloglines, and Yahoo. There are other free readers, many online versions and many that you install on your computer. I am only mentioning these three just to keep it simple and give you a general idea on how RSS works and how you can try it out without costing anything but a few minutes of your time. I already have a Google email account, so I mainly use Google’s Reader, its simple, quick and gets the job done. Plus I can view my RSS feeds via my Windows Mobile device, so I have it on the go if needed.
So you’ve picked one and signed up, now all you have to do is add your feeds to your reader or what the industry calls “subscribing”. You may have seen a logo like the ones below:
Click on an icon respective to the reader you have signed up for and your browser should ask you to login to your feed reader site. After which you can organize your feeds into categories or folders or anything that makes sense to you. Now when the web site author updates their web site with new information, that will automatically be displayed in your feed reader for your reading pleasure and all in one location.
Here is an pretty good video explanation on RSS feeds that I found a while back:
With the present economy in its current state, more small business are looking to do more with less. Whether it be job cuts or budget cuts, the small business is looking for more ways to save money just to be able to survive. To support the business they all have some sort of back end computer networking infrastructure that still needs to be supported. But how can business technology now support the business in a fashion where it can actually make a contribution of its own by saving on costs? Its called infrastructure virtualization.
Infrastructure virtualization is the hot new technology in the information technology world that will allow the infrastructure do more with less. Virtualization has been developing mainstream since the early nineties, with one of the more popular companies today known as VMWare. Today there are still quite a handfull of other companies that now offfer virtulization platform including companies suchs as Microsoft and Xen.
So your probably wondering how is server virtualization going to help me in my business? Well, let me try to explain. If for example you have a small Windows based network that is supporting say abuot 50-100 users, you may have few servers that are setup as resources to serve your user community. You may have a couple of domain controllers, an email server, one or two database servers, file server and maybe a print server.
Server virtualization consolidates multiple underutilized physical servers on to one host server that will run all the virtual machines. The virtual host that runs these virtual servers will consume much less power than running 7-8 physical servers. Also any network admin should agree its easier to manage one or two physical servers than it is to manage 10.
So is server virtualization right for you?
If you have servers running at a CPU utilitzation of under 15-20% and if they mostly run idle like domain controllers or other rarely used servers, these would be pretty good candidates for virtualization. Most of the time under utilized servers have about 80-90% of their CPU not being used as well as more than 75% of their memory just sitting there. If you virtualize servers you should be able to easily fit about 20-30 virtual servers on one physical server to attain a CPU utilization of abuot 50-60% and still have room in case a virtual server needs more CPU resources, the same goes for the memory portion.
In essense you could consolidate 10-20 physical servers into one. If you are interested in pursuing virtualization for your small business or would like to comment, please feel free to post below or email me and we can talk!
From time to time when browsing the internet for long periods of time and visiting sites that you wouldn’t normally on a daily basis can sometimes end up wreaking havoc in the long run. If you haven’t recently scanned your computer for spyware and you are experiencing slow internet browsing, weird pop ups (ads) and maybe even a sporadic internet connection when trying to access all or certain websites, your computer may be infected with spyware or adware.
Adware or advertising-supported software is any software package which automatically plays, displays, or downloads advertisements to a computer after the software is installed on it or while the application is being used. Some types of adware are also spyware and can be classified as privacy-invasive software.
So what does one do if this is the case? Well, scan for spyware of course. First you will need a couple of different pieced of anti-spyware programs, one may work just fine but I have noticed if you scan your computer with at least two different programs, usually the second one will pick up some leftovers that the first scanner may have missed. There are commercial spyware scanners sometimes built right into your existing anti-virus software (assuming you have one installed), which can sometimes help only if they are activated and updated on a regular basis. Here are a few recommended freeware anti-spyware applications that I have used in the past with some pretty good success:
As with any anti-spyware or even anti-virus software, you should immediately update the software definitions before the scan so that you can be sure that you can scan for even the most recent spyware that is out loose on the internet.
After you have downloaded at least two different spyware scanners, go ahead and install and update. Scan with the first, check to see if any spyware or adware has been detected and have the software initiate a removal. After you are done with the first scan, restart your computer and do the same with the second scanner following up with a reboot.
Now you should notice a bit more of a responsive computer after your second restart and should also have a better experience with internet browsing as well. I would recommend scanning for spyware at least every two weeks if you are an average internet user.
