I wanted to thank the nice people at AT&T and their PR firm for sending me both an iPhone and a BlackBerry 8820 to test out. Currently, I am putting the two phones through their paces and I promise a full report on the pro and cons of both phones soon. They are giving my Nokia N70 a run for the money but I have not made up my mind yet. Stay tuned…
This article was originally published in the Oct. issue of Greater Wilmington Business
Unless you have been hiding under a rock all summer, you have been well aware of the public relations machine behind the launch of Apple’s iPhone. With all the focus on the iPhone and iPod, it sometimes looks like Apple is not in the personal computer business any more. October will mark the launch of the new Macintosh operating system (OS), Leopard, which promises to improve to include some pretty interesting and useful new features. All indications are that users will not face the types of problems that have confounded Windows Vista upgrader and the new version should run on most modern Apple hardware without additional RAM or other improvements. Traditionally, Apple OS upgrades have actually made older Apple computers run better.
In honor of the release of the new OS, I have compiled some reasons that now is a good the time to purchase a Macintosh computer.
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We have launched the new version of the web site for the Small Business Technology Development Center in Wilmington, NC.. (www.csb.uncw.edu/sbtdc/)
My goals in updating the site were as follows:
Overall the site is a huge improvement over the previous version and can now be maintained by SBTDC administrative staff via Macromedia Contribute.
Originally Published in the September Issue of the Wilmington Business Journal (http://www.wilmingtonbiz.net/)
A remote access VPN connections is sort of like a cell phone. At first, people said “why would I need one, I have a phone at home?” Once you are able to access your work computer from a remote location you will find yourself saying “how could I imaging living with out it.” Connecting to your office network remotely can be incredibly helpful when you travel or simply forget to send that email before you leave for the day.
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Originally Published in the August Issue of the Wilmington Business Journal (http://www.wilmingtonbiz.net/)
The “information super highway” was once the common way to describe the internet. Sen. Ted Stevens of Alaska became fodder for late night comedians when he said the internet “is not a big truck. It’s a series of tubes.” But however you envision this global network of connected networks, it is important to know that data is handled by a number of computers and can be read unless it is encrypted.
The founders of the internet did not see any reason to protect the data flowing around the networks because all of the information was for education and government uses. Today the internet is a very different place and digital data is often very private. Internet connections also now have the bandwidth to allow us to access company files, applications and servers when outside of the office or to link offices together to share resources. A Virtual Private Network (VPN) is designed to allow data to be shared securely over the internet by encrypting the information as it travels. There are a wide range of options for VPNs and this article only scratches the surface, but should serve to illuminate some of the reasons why you would want to utilize some method of VPN in your organization. Read the rest of this entry »
The name says it all. This has got to be one of the best viral ad campaigns out there. I may just have to buy on of their blenders.
It amazes me that the phone continued to work for as long as it did during the blend.
Originally Published in the July Issue of the Wilmington Business Journal (http://www.wilmingtonbiz.net/)
I have made some funny spelling mistakes in my life, but unfortunately none of them have led me to owning a company with market capitalization of $160 billion.
The name “Google” originated when founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin misspelled “googol,” which refers to 1 followed by 100 zeros, while registering a domain name for a website. Since its creation in 1996, Google has become the dominant search tool on the Internet, and with the addition of advertising revenue, it has become an economic powerhouse. In addition to becoming an outlet for advertising sales and web search, Google allows employees to spend up to twenty percent of their weekly time working on new products. Google also has been buying successful web sites, and they now offer ancillary products that do not directly relate to online search, including an online office suite that competes with Microsoft Office.
I knew the pubic relations machine at Apple had reached a fever pitch, when even my Fiance’s grandmother asked me what I thought about the iPhone. As a lifetime Apple user and a more recent shareholder, I am excited to see Apple do well with this new device.
Apple has gone a long way to ensuring the success of their device by announcing their rate plans today. The pricing is reasonable and similar to what I currently pay for my unlimited data plan for my Nokia N70 on Cingular.
Everything about the iPhone looks like trademark Apple. The user interface is sexy, the advertising is compelling, and the distribution strategy is disruptive. Apple will sell you the phone, then send you home to activate it. No more waiting in the store in line to have an underpaid sales rep set up your service. All of this is done through iTunes. Talk about convergence.
Will I buy an iPhone on June 29th when it is released. Probably not. I am very happy with my phone now, and it allows me some features that the iPhone lacks. User installed applications and dial up networking (DUN) are my critical features. Apple claims that you can use web apps, but it is nice to be able to install your own programs. I have a couple on my Nokia that would be missed, such a Putty for SSH. As for the lack of DUN, which allows you to get your laptop online via the internet connection in your phone, this is a stop for me. I connect via my laptop all the time, and while it is not that fast, when you need to get a file or something over a remote connection, it is priceless. I am sure this will come in the future, but for now it is a no-deal.
Most people probably do not care about either of these features, so the phone may be for them. If you think that $499 and $599 are expensive, remember the Razr was almost that price when it came out.
People love Power Point, I even like to use, but there are a lot of things you can do wrong. Comedian Don McMillian hits on most of them.
Life After Death by PowerPoint
*This is safe for work and has no improper language.
Originally Published in the June Issue of the Wilmington Business Journal (http://www.wilmingtonbiz.net/)
As this is my first article (for the business journal), I wanted to make a good impression on my editor and get it in early. Unfortunately, my computer crashed, or I accidentally deleted it, or my dog ate my hard drive. Actually, none of this really happened to me, but it did happen to the magazine Business 2.0, which is published by Time. They recently had a catastrophic hardware failure that caused the complete loss of the June issue. Lucky for them they had a paper copy, but page layouts had to be redone from scratch.
If you have ever lost a computer file, then you know how important it is to back up your work. If you have never been there, done that, consider yourself lucky—in today’s digital world, data loss is as inevitable as death and taxes. Therefore, you must have a backup strategy in place to guard against these would-be catastrophes.
For a backup strategy to be effective, it must be regular, complete and verifiable. If your backup strategy ignores any of these three components, you are asking for trouble.
