Archive for December, 2009
Twitter is often labelled as the modern forum for the twenty-something narcissist. While some may find this true (especially those with teenagers and over-used SMS texting accounts), not all things Twitter are self –centered. In fact, the best way to use Twitter in your business marketing may be just the opposite approach, one of philanthropy instead.
Let’s look at two distinct scenarios for using Twitter.
Scenario One:
Across the street from our offices is a little restaurant that has a soup de jour and daily special. Every morning starting at 11:00 or so they receive a flood of calls as to what these specials are. This is time consuming and does not always result in an order. By sending their specials out with a twitter account they reduce their telephone traffic jam. They are now organizing a system where they can receive lunch order requests the same way. Net result? Orders are accurate, more time for staff to prepare and serve food.
Scenario Two:
A fellow on our advisory board sells organic produce. He was trying to sell products using Twitter, but found little interest in his ‘Tweets’ – which were very specific to groceries. After some discussion we had him change his tactics. i.e. Sell the lifestyle, not the product. As a result, he sends out mini-blogs on everything from car-pooling to courses on aromatherapy and alternative gardening techniques. By approaching it this way, the audience found more value in the information he was broadcasting, and his sales have reflected that.
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Everyone knows someone that is really into home theater and has all the latest toys for it (or maybe that someone is you!) From multi-zone capabilities and all-in-one programmable remotes to pre-amps and DSPs, they have enough accessories to make your head spin.
One of the more powerful devices in their setup may include a Home Theater PC (HTPC for short.) HTPCs are similar in nature to professional media servers – large boxes capable of storing hundreds of movies and albums for your viewing/listening pleasure, but are by far a more flexible solution.
Since an HTPC is based on Microsoft Windows, the options available to you to output to your home theater are virtually limitless. Since Windows Vista, HTPCs have been capable of supporting full 1080p and HD audio output. Furthermore, since it is PC based, when it comes to storage, the sky’s the limit! With readily available addons, the HTPC can be outfitted to become a radio tuner, a PVR for your favourite shows, stream internet music/video, and with the right infrared receiver, completely controlled at the touch of an all-in-one remote. Several companies manufacture PC cases designed to match your existing home theater and blend right in.
Naturally, such flexibility comes with a significant learning curve. Expect to spend some time tweaking the PC to work just the way you need. Not only that, nearly every feature requires additional hardware cost to implement.
However, if you can overcome these challenges, you will have a fully built HTPC that will impress even the hard core home theater enthusiast!
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In this day and age where computers are the tools of business, and all your business forms and transactions are paperless, backing up your data is vital to your continued business survival. Backups are not just for the “big” businesses, but are applicable to all, even if you are a mom and pop shop with a single computer.
Backing up data is no longer just swapping out backup tapes or disks or CDs. There are varying options and protection levels depending on the amount of data that you are backing up, your protection comfort level and your budget.
When looking to backup large amounts of data on a daily basis, tape is still a major player in the game with the ability to back up a terabyte of data to a single tape. And expect it to double next year.
If your data bulge is not that big, you may consider backing up your data online. With high speed internet, there are many vendors out there that provide backup solutions that store your data on their secured and protected servers. After the initial upload of your selected data, the backup software monitors and uploads only the data that changes. Even if your amount of data is large and doesn’t change much, this could possibly be a solution for you.
Moving into homes and small business are Network Attached Storage (NAS) units, allowing you to store terabytes of data over networks. Most of them supplied with some form of backup software, allowing your network hard drive to act as a backup unit for your local computer’s data as well. The better units will have mirrored drives in them to protect your data in case one of the hard drives goes down.
Say you’re just a small shop with a couple of computers and don’t think you can afford to invest in a backup system, then installing a simple set of mirrored hard drives in your computer can keep your business running without downtime, if even one of those hard drives fail. However, you should still have a backup copy kept elsewhere in case of a fire or anything else that destroys your premises.
What it comes down to is that the important thing about backup is doing them. Ensure that you have current copies kept off-site from your business in case of a disaster. Ensure that you test your backups on a regular basis. Because, after a problem, what good are they if the data is corrupt or inaccessible.
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In this month’s article, we’re going to take aim at a popular misconception, that “All firewalls are the same”. I’ve heard this claim more than a few times in my career, usually from companies using a consumer grade firewall, and it’s never been true. It’s the equivalent of claiming that all cars are the same because they’ve all got four wheels and an engine; this means that, for example, at the construction site you don’t need a F-250, your 1981 Chevette should do the same job.
Yes, all firewalls will have similar features – they’ll plug into your network and they’ll control access to it. That’s where the similarities end however. A consumer grade firewall/router is just that…a consumer product. It’s designed to support a few users, and provide the type of services that a home user requires. It’s built with the assumption that you’re not protecting payroll, accounting or other business level data.
The best analogy to use (and one that will be familiar to readers before), is that of the bouncer. A firewall is at its most simple level, a bouncer for your network. It will let no one into your network unless that person has been requested by a user.
A consumer level firewall will simply look at the fact that the person/data has been requested, and let it through…even though it turns out that the person is carrying a few assault rifles under their coat.
A corporate level firewall will request that the person go through an antivirus scanner, then check it against a list of unwanted individuals. Only after it passes all these checkpoints will the person/data be allowed in. It’s this higher level of scrutiny that makes corporate level firewalls so much more secure.
As I’ve said before, no single security device is a panacea, and no firewall will protect a user who’s determined to download that neat file that’s actually a virus, but having a firewall that is capable of going that extra step will provide any company with a lot more peace of mind for their data.
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The Asus O!play removes the hassle of setting up a home theatre PC (HTPC). For years, I’ve had an awkward PC sitting in my living room to view digital downloads. You may scream “pirate!” but the fact is that legal digital downloads aren’t going away, they’re just going to be more common. Sure Bluray players are the thing to have, but… are you ready for the digital media of the near future?
The Asus O!Play is a tiny little box that can replace the unsightly HTPC or give you the ability to view digital media for the first time. This little box comes with a remote and menu driven system that lets you navigate the media on any network share. It’s not just a media portal, however, it actually decodes 99.99% of digital media out there and streams it to your home theatre system. That means that you can download anything and pump it through this little box and solve the issues that have plagued home theatre enthusiasts for years. It doesn’t even take a “hack” to an Xbox or PS3 to do it, the functionality is built in.
Building a decent home theatre PC will set you back $600 or more. That’s a steep price to pay when you could be spending the money on a slick amp. The new alternative is the Asus O!Play. At less than $150, in a compact size, this little unit will be the inheritor of the HTPC market and will put a lot of HTPC case makers out of business.
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