6e580 Dell Motherboard Desktop Board Workstation

6e580 Dell Motherboard Desktop Board Workstation Review

Check Price Now! 6e580 Dell Motherboard Desktop Board Workstation Feature 6e580 Dell Motherboard Desktop Board Workstation Overview

Dell – System Board For Precision Workstation(6e580). Refurbished. In Stock.

6e580 Dell Motherboard Desktop Board Workstation Specifications

*** Product Information and Prices Stored: Dec 30, 2009 18:35:03

[Via http://servermotherboard.wordpress.com]

Dell Studio Slim Desktop Pc, Intel Core 2 Quad processor Q8200 2.33GHz (4MB L2, 1333FSB), 4GB DDR2 SDRAM, 500GB SATA Hard Drive (7200 RPM), 16x DVD +/- RW W/dbl Layer Write Capability, Intel GMA X4500hd Graphics Card, Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bi

Dell Studio Slim Desktop Pc, Intel Core 2 Quad processor Q8200 2.33GHz (4MB L2, 1333FSB), 4GB DDR2 SDRAM, 500GB SATA Hard Drive (7200 RPM), 16x DVD +/- RW W/dbl Layer Write Capability, Intel GMA X4500hd Graphics Card, Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit Review

Check Price Now! Dell Studio Slim Desktop Pc, Intel Core 2 Quad processor Q8200 2.33GHz (4MB L2, 1333FSB), 4GB DDR2 SDRAM, 500GB SATA Hard Drive (7200 RPM), 16x DVD +/- RW W/dbl Layer Write Capability, Intel GMA X4500hd Graphics Card, Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit Feature

• Intel Core 2 Quad processor Q8200 (4MB L2, 2.33GHz, 1333FSB), 4GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 800MHz (DDR2 is a memory architecture that enables systems to improve performance and reduce power consumption. The amount of RAM you have determines how many programs can be executed at one time and how much data can be readily available to a program. It also determines how quickly your applications perform and how many applications you can easily toggle between at one time. Simply put, the more RAM you have, the more programs you can run smoothly and simultaneously.)
• 500GB SATA II Hard Drive (7200 RPM), 16X DVD +/- RW w/dbl layer write capability
• Integrated HDMI and 1394 adapter, Integrated Intel GMA X4500HD Graphics Card, 10/100 Integrated network card
• Dell 19 in 1 Media Card Reader, USB 2.0 Ports: 2 front, 4 back, USB Multimedia Keyboard, Dell USB 6-Button Logitech Mouse, 250 Watt DC Power Supply
• Genuine Windows Vista Home Premium 64BIT, Microsoft Works 9.0

Dell Studio Slim Desktop Pc, Intel Core 2 Quad processor Q8200 2.33GHz (4MB L2, 1333FSB), 4GB DDR2 SDRAM, 500GB SATA Hard Drive (7200 RPM), 16x DVD +/- RW W/dbl Layer Write Capability, Intel GMA X4500hd Graphics Card, Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit Overview

The Studio Slim desktop boasts a stylish design with state-of-the-art-technologies that make a home media center more affordable than ever. Packed full of entertainment features, the Studio Slim desktop boasts a stylish design and state-of-the-art technologies for everyday computing and home theater entertaining. Whether you buy this for yourself or for your family, this powerful and scalable desktop can be customized to fit your lifestyle. Slimline design sets up vertically or horizontally. Sophisticated and streamlined, the new Studio Slim desktops piano black finish will be sure to turn heads. Its outer shine will catch your eye, but so will its compact size that allows it to be placed under the TV as a complete media center solution. Listen to music, watch TV, play your favorite movies and even view your digital photo albums all by using the Studio Slim as your media console. The Studio Slim desktop can transform your computing experience while adding a touch of pizzazz.Dimensions: H: 14.2 inches (362 mm), W: 3.9 inches (100.0 mm), D: 17.1 inches (435 mm). Front & Back AV Ports;Front: Microphone (1) and Headphone (1) 1394a (1), Back: line-in, line-out, microphone, rear surround, side surround, 1394a (1)Back: HDMI, VGA

Dell Studio Slim Desktop Pc, Intel Core 2 Quad processor Q8200 2.33GHz (4MB L2, 1333FSB), 4GB DDR2 SDRAM, 500GB SATA Hard Drive (7200 RPM), 16x DVD +/- RW W/dbl Layer Write Capability, Intel GMA X4500hd Graphics Card, Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit Specifications

*** Product Information and Prices Stored: Dec 27, 2009 12:06:04

[Via http://homeservercomputer.wordpress.com]

Cheap Standalone Media Center

I was doing my usual bargain hunting at a local thrift store when I ran across a Dell 4550 Desktop. Needing a new media pc project I found the price tag of $20 hard to pass up. It only needed a hard drive so with one of those that i had laying around the house, a install of XP and some drivers from the Dell I got it up and running in no time.

Then, thanks to Lifehacker I got some really great Media Center DIY tips from this article, “Build a Silent, Standalone XBMC Media Center on the Cheap“.

So summing up:

Media pc 20$

Netflex Video Streaming service 9$ per month (unlimited )

Windows XP OS 0$

Hard Drive 0$

XBMC 0$

Enjoyment of a project well done priceless

You can also find this post at Vanport Media

[Via http://avatarwa.wordpress.com]

Help Support National Entrepreneurship Association

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[Via http://dscoupons.wordpress.com]

(E)Magazines Galore

Awhile back I posted an article linking Conde Nast Publishing and Apple’s development of a tablet PC rumored to hit the market in the fall/winter of 2010. The thought was that Apple was forming some sort of partnership to help pull E-readers to their tablet to help break into a market dominated by specialty readers like Kindle or Nook.

Whether Apple is involved or not, five major publishers have banded together to push for a more open e-literature world.  Demanding a universal standard that allows their magazines to be accurately transferred to a digital medium across a wide range of viewers – rather than the specialized files used by current readers – it is clear that this is but a prong on a multi-faceted attack to allow PCs into the suddenly lucrative E-reader world.

If a standard is established and all magazines, newspapers and novels are published in that one form that is open for all computers/readers/cell phones/etc. to download and read, it’ll open up a world of competition for Kindle, Nook and the Sony Reader. Instead of having to make a severely specialized product to compete in the market, a company like Apple (or Del or HP or…) would be able to do what they do best: make a jack-of-all trade machine that hits a specific price range. We’ve seen the proliferation of the netbook (which I find horribly unusable with their smurf sized keyboards…) so we know big box computer companies can easily shift their gears to make smaller computers.

This is something to keep an eye on in the next year and maybe make you re-consider throwing down that two to three hundred bucks on that brand spanking new e-reader. While their displays are nice and they do what they do very well, the e-lit world could be on the cusp of a minor revolution.

[Via http://looseleafbound.wordpress.com]

VirtualBox and DKMS

While upgrading VirtualBox to the lastest version (3.0.12) available in Debian repositories (for squeeze), I discovered that the modules needed for VirtualBox to work were compiled on the fly. An unknown process did the job for me : DKMS.

Until very recently, I had to compile myself the source of the following modules : vboxdrv and vboxnetflt

The compilation process was made with module-assistant.

Then, I had to load myself the new modules :

root@localhost:~# modprobe vboxdrv

root@localhost:~# modprobe vboxnetflt

Since the version 3.0 of VirtualBox, its installation has changed a bit.

Manual compilation is no more needed. This job is henceforth done by DKMS.

DKMS stands for Dynamic Kernel Module Support Framework.

Some programs need extra modules to work. These can be already compiled and included in a dedicated Debian package and possibly be loaded at boot time or manually loaded during an user session.

If you want VirtualBox to run properly, the following modules must exist and be loaded :

vboxnetflt, vboxnetadp and vboxdrv

These modules are compiled at boot time by a DKMS process if there are not already present. Then they are automatically loaded.

Before launching VirtualBox, check whether they are here or not :

root@localhost:~# lsmod |grep vbox

vboxnetflt             72328  0

vboxnetadp             66864  0

vboxdrv               102576  1 vboxnetflt

For further technical information about DKMS, please visit the following websites :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynamic_Kernel_Module_Support

Dell and DKMS

[Via http://linuxindetails.wordpress.com]

Selecting the Right Laptop Charger

In recent times, laptop chargers are being easily duplicated. The selection of a good one is very important because the performance of a battery automatically depends on the charger. Hence before buying such a unit you must verify it and check with the user manual. If any of the specifications mentioned are not available then it is better no to buy it. Next you can also check with various user reviews and then decide whether or not to buy a particular unit. Another basic step is to find out that the particular unit you are buying is compatible with your battery or not.

One of the major factors that should be considered for buying these units is whether it is able to withstand extreme heat and cold conditions. Many of these are affected with moisture once they are removed from extremely cold temperature to the normal temperature. This damages the electric circuits within it. Similarly, extreme heat can also hamper the chemical composite of the unit. It must also be made sure that it is able to withstand long hours of charging, which the battery might require. Lithium ion batteries get heated up very easily; hence the chargers must be able to withstand the heat. Most of them are capable of enduring long hours of charging, but some are not.

Technology is so advanced these days that even solar chargers are available in the market; these are known as voltaic solar bags. These solar units convert the heat energy of the sun to electric energy by a process known as photovoltaic effect. With exposure to sunlight for an entire day, the generator of a voltaic solar bag can fully charge a laptop. These bags are protected by water proof panels. Although these bags are quite large and expensive they are totally eco-friendly and help in conservation of energy by using the energy from the sun. Hence, it is becoming common day by day.

These days even timer based chargers are available. The time taken to charge the batteries is noted and the time is then set in the charger. This allows the user to avoid over charging of batteries. Once the laptop is fully charged the charging automatically stops. Another important aspect is speed charging. Speed charging generates excessive amount of heat and hence such units are provided with cooling fans. Suitable batteries that can be charged by these units are NiMH cells.

Thus, there are several ways of selecting a good charger only you need to do your research before buying one.

[Via http://batteryedge.wordpress.com]

Posicionamiento y su Importancia

Es un hecho que el fabricante o prestador de servicios debe convencer a su target (mercado objetivo) de que su producto o servicio va a satisfacer su necesidad, mejor que el de la competencia, y para hacerlo éste trata de desarrollar una imagen especial del producto o servicio en la mente del cliente, creando un posicionamiento para ubicar al producto o servicio en la mente de los clientes.

Wave European Southern Observatory, debe quedar claro que refiere Products Posicionamiento not have its own page, Sino-Japanese relations Mende Lo Que hare itself, pulling energy-saving customers ?德洛斯拉斯characters themselves a las Que quiere influenciar.

Producto servicio ES Raforumaanmonoeru Library of percibido Dentoroderamentederosu posicionado Library of consumidores puede ser mas importante para su éxito, el mismo producto mono servicio Library Anssi; no vende hamburguesas, vende sonrisas McDonald's, Xerox industrial de vende copiado, mejora la productividad Dellas oficinas; not Domino's Pizza vende, pizza, vende Tienpode entrega; no graphics card accepted Banamex vende, vende poder de compra; Terumekkusu no vende líneas telefónicas, vende lazos de afectividad, Pricewatherhouse no vende abogados, vende enterprise solution; Classic ejemplos Deuebu Posicionamiento.

El posicionamiento se refiere a las Estrategias orientadas a crear y mantener en la mente de los clientes un determinado concepto del producto o servicio de la empresa en relación con la competencia, siendo parte de una progresión natural cuando se utiliza la segmentación de mercado.

Ante tantos productos, Y ruidos Deoi ago compa?ías en base ES El enfoque no Deruuebu Posicionamiento from the 06% price% algorithm diferente, ya Ramente; ideas las existentes order infantry really mono está en China. La mejor manera de la sobresaturada get mensaje fraud claim Derearusoshieda ES UN penetrar Anramente Y easy, concentrados receptor en ser percibido Aneru Y Y Tienemono as is Anraderu producto realidad.

Si nuestro Posted tiene to objetivo customers can not only Chinese newspaper El Products page itself simplifica newspaper Proceso day selección, energy supplies and gear conceptos los principios que pueden incrementar la efectividad de la comunicación al cual itself concepto de que el Barcelona English La comunicación debe am Lugar is a Chinese newspaper tiempo adecuado supplies and gear depressions circunstancias propicias.

El mensaje para no fijar Anramentede imborrable ES UN Kaya's really El mensaje mas importante, ser China Erupurimeroan penetrarla, muy difícil de hecho ES's Login Ansegundoruga really hacemos Jeju. Sin embargo, hay ciertas estrategias para aquellos Posicionamiento Deuebu days El Mono Uno son Ross.

[Via http://accountse.wordpress.com]

Stop doing marketing projects and start doing programs

Every marketing manager that I talk to in the tech industry complains about the same things. They don’t have enough budget and they don’t have enough time (resources) to get everything done. Many tech companies still have an open source agency model for below the line marketing activities, meaning they have numerous agencies that they can use to help them get their job done. What I’ve seen is that many marketing managers insist on dividing up their projects between 4 or 5 different agencies every quarter. Maybe it is their company culture to “spread the wealth” or may it is because they don’t want to put their eggs (marketing budget) in one basket.

I’ve been in marketing at both the client level and the agency side for over 13 years and my suggestion to marketing managers at tech companies is to think from a program perspective, rather than a project perspective. By bundling projects together and using one agency that you trust and love, you can save money and time. Instead of doing 5 projects at $40k a piece to 5 different agencies and having to deal with all the PO’s, project management, etc., use one agency for all of them. Benefits include: Less meetings, less PO’s, economies of scale (you can get a better deal on all of it), tighter control and “one throat to choke”. Many marketing managers are afraid of this because they feel it is more risky. Also they want different creative minds on things and want more choices. My suggestion is to request to have your creative work done by mutliple producers and writers within one agency so that you still get the advantage of multiple minds, but with the cost savings of running it like a program.

Again, think about consolidating projects into single programs and using one agency instead of 4 or 5 for the things that you need to get done. You’ll be happy you did.

[Via http://thecornercube.wordpress.com]

How Linux (almost) Drove Me To Windows XP

Yep. Sunday afternoon, I was this close to nuking the linux partition on my laptop. Monday, a lack of blank CDROM disks saved me.

I have … three linux machines in the house, not counting commodity items like a TiVo and such. One backup machine, one media machine, and my desktop machine. The backup machine is frozen at Debian unstable sometime four years ago — it works, and upgrades of working boxes scare me. The media machine I keep up to date, again tracking Debian unstable. I recently lost a drive on my last 1.3 kernel machine, a truly ancient and no-longer-used NAT box. My desktop machine has Ubuntu (I think Ibex) on it; but that machine mostly is used as a Windows box.

For the last nearly 10 years, however, my work laptop has been my primary development machine. I’ve been fortunate to be involved in Java development for the bulk of that time; non-GUI Java development no less. Telemetry systems, compilers, logic database servers, etc. For me, the environment is Eclipse and Java. The OS is somewhat less relevant than it is for others. (In the old days of Java 1.0, the environment was Emacs and Make. Make + Java == headaches.) (Some would say Emacs is an OS. Heh.)

So Why Run Linux At All?

Every oneof my work laptops (a succession of Dell’s broken by a Thinkpad) has come with Windows installed; somewhere in 2003-2005, Blackdown’s JDK became available, before Sun was willing to support Linux. Prior to that, the Windows JVM was faster than the Solaris JVM for concurrent operations; for a long while Solaris’s JDK was mired in green_threads and such. But even the early Blackdown JDK delivered better performance on Linux than Sun’s own JDK did on Windows — I went where the speed was. Plus, for server applications, Java really was ‘write-once-run-everywhere’. So I worked hard to keep that Linux partition running as laptops came and went.

What Went Right?

When I got my current laptop, a Dell D830, over two years ago, I decided to stray from my Debian roots. The last laptop had introduced SATA, and has been a real pain to get Debian installed on as SATA support was new and wifty. This time around I decided to try a stock Ubuntu install; Gutsy Gibbon I think. It just flew in. Installation was trivial. I waded through the GCJ junk and got Sun’s JDK installed. Again, the same programs on the same machine under Java were faster under Linux than under Windows XP. Life was good.

Sure, suspend/resume was a fond hope, Flash lagged in terms of support, yatta-yatta. But for me, Eclipse + Linux + Java was fast, fast, fast.

What Went Wrong?

I kept up the install, moving from Gutsy to Hardy to Ibex. Things stayed good. I liked KDE3.

Then I updated to Jaunty and I noticed something. For the first time, Java under XP was nearly as fast as Java under Linux. It didn’t seem that Windows had gotten any better, rather it seemed like there was more gunk in the works in Ubuntu. Plus, either within the release or on purpose, I tried KDE 4.0. It wasn’t that I didn’t like KDE 4; but it just didn’t help me work any better, at a cost of familiarlity (I was compiling KDE 2 for Solaris a lifetime ago; I liked KDE3). Suspend/Resume were still missing, and Nvidia seem to hit a pothole with their drivers. Multihead was still a pain in the ass when you moved between multiple setups daily.  I found myself sticking to Windows more often. In the last three months, I use Windows exclusively.

Then Karmic came around. I thought “Hey, there has been lots of rumbling about laptop support; maybe they fixed a bunch of stuff”. So I dist-upgraded. That did not go well; lots of stuff was in odd states, partial packages, strange error messages, general weirdness. I figured, I’d steadily upgraded across multiple releases — moving my partitions across machines — maybe it was time for a clean install? So I burned a CD, tar’d up my home directory, and installed from scratch.

Karmic is neat! Lots of stuff that just works, lots of eye-candy, cool.

Except.

It was slow as molasses.

I mean, ridiculously slow. I have a test suite (all Java) that I run multiple times a day. Around a thousand tests, across the creation and deletion of twenty-plus database servers. Under Windows it takes around 2000 seconds. Left to run overnight, it took over 4.5 hours on the exact same machine under Karmic.

9X Slower? WTF?

Turkey Troubleshooting

My family had a stay-at-home Thanksgiving. My girls watched Mythbusters for hours. I spent most of it installing various Linux distros and trying things. It was painful, and ultimately fruitless, but for an accident.

First, I realized the cpu frequency scaling was keeping my processors at 800Mhz, instead of 2.2Ghz. Further rooting revealed that cpufreqd, when installed, had a rule to limit the frequency to 800Mhz when the temp went above 55C. That was a bit low for my chip, so I removed that rule for the purposes of investigation. That was fun; I could force the system to run at 2.2Ghz, but the temp show up past 95C! I halted the tests before things got melty. (BTW, if you don’t bother to check your CPU speed, you can just be plagued by the feeling that your machine is slow, never realizing it is running slowly. The Gnome CPU Freq applet is a help here.)

No ACPI fan registered at all. The I8K modules see the fan, and can even make it spin faster, but after 3-5 seconds the fan would slow down. Still the system would zoom up past 80C.

Switching back to Windows gave me my first clue — the fan came on, louder than it ever was under Linux, and spun madly for around five minutes. Running the tests showed the CPU temp never getting above 70C. Perhaps there were fan control issues? I found various comments to this effect, lots of random cpufreq comments in the kernel changelogs, and a number of really interesting bug reports in Launchpad. This forum post sums things up nicely. Lots of frustration, apparently since Jaunty, precious few answers.

I ran through Debian Stable, Fedora 12 (very nice), and Arch Linux (also nice if you are willing to spend a bit more time managing your system). Gentoo looked attractive, but I was too cranky by that point. All the systems performed the same, with minimal fan speed and lots of overheating. Only Fedora seemed to match the polish of Ubuntu; only Arch matched the package management of Debian/Ubuntu. FWIW.

Sunday night I bagged it; resigning myself to leaving Linux behind for at least a while. I don’t really have time for a distro I have to work to maintain. This laptop is a tool. My boss will happily fail to pay me for screwing around with Linux.

Eureka!

I went into the office Monday, and I had a problem. The last distro I had installed, Arch, never picked up my Windows XP partition as bootable, and it wasn’t in the Grub menu. I could noodle around in Grub, or I could just install Ubuntu again. Hey, they might fix it someday? Maybe in Lucid?

We couldn’t find a blank CD. What are the odds? Then we found an old one, but Brasero under Arch failed to burn it. Blech.

Then my Release Engineer/IT Guy/Resident Mad Scientist says he thinks he has one already made up. We run Ubuntu on a batch of Dell servers, so it is plausible. (any guesses where this is going?) But he doesn’t have Karmic Desktop — he has Karmic Server.

What the hell — I use the laptop as a server for all intents and purposes anyway, so what could it hurt?

I got it installed, then I installed X, gnome-core, sun-java6, and Eclipse. Ran my test. Blinked. Listened as the fans spun mightily.

Temp never got above 67C. Tests completed in 1799 seconds. Ha! Victory!

Dance of the happy coder!

Wha-at Happened?

Got me. I have some theories.

• no acpid running. NO acpi modules installed. Yes, this means no suspend/resume — I don’t miss it. Boot is so fast I don’t care anymore. I suspect the kernel ACPI code of being … not quite happy with my D830.
• different kernel — Ubuntu server installs the PAE kernel by default. What else might be different in that kernel?

Something is now keeping it’s grimy paws out of the BIOS’s way when it comes to fan control. Someone with more time than I have can work their way incrementally from an Ubuntu Server install to an Ubuntu Desktop install and figure out where the tripwire is.

But Ubuntu Server saved Linux for me.

[Via http://designbygravity.wordpress.com]

Dell ofrece Google Chrome OS para dell mini 10v

Es interesante ver a empresas que adaptan un modelo de ventas basado en dar opciones a los clientes, y no es para menos porque recuerden que el cliente es el que manda, y la empresa Dell ofrece una imagen del sistema operativo de Google para los poseedores de esta netbook

Lo bueno es que trae todos los drivers para que no tengas problemas ni con la tarjeta inalambrica

Lo malo que para probarla necesitaras una memoria de 8 GB que no se porque razon es tan grande, Asi que ya sabes si tienes una Dell Mini 10v no dudes en

Via: Engadget

[Via http://mikehn.wordpress.com]

Yes, Dell Integrated Webcams DO work with Windows 7!

I was a bit peeved when I tried to fire up my webcam to take a quick snapshot and found it just didn’t start anymore. A quick google search turned up results saying that the Dell Integrated Webcam running on the Inspiron series of notebooks didn’t work if you went from XP to Windows 7. I figured I was SOL, till I stumbled upon a still sealed envelope of the webcam manager that Dell shipped me when I bought the laptop.

I figured it wouldn’t work, but, low and behold it installed, restarted, and it’s up and running better than ever.

Next time don’t be so quick to condemn Dell, they might suck, but they don’t suck THAT hard

–Stephanie

[Via http://thesubengy.wordpress.com]

Brand Republic Twitter Event (#BR140)

I’m a little late writing this up as it happened on Tuesday, but luckily my mental age is not so advanced that I can’t think back two days (provided you’re not asking me what I had for dinner).

Brand Republic’s Twitter Event: Winning Formulas (sic)* to Maximise the Potential of Twitter, was targetted as a workshop for people only just dipping a toe into Twitter, and involved the following:

• An introduction to Twitter and examples of good and bad use by brands from Mark Palmer (@MaverickMark)
• A case study from me about @dogstrust
• An interview between Brand Republic’s outgoing editor Gordon MacMillan (@GordonMacMillan) and Dan from Innocent, the smoothie company (@innocentdrinks)
• A panel involving me, my ex-Shiny colleague Stuart Waterman – now Web Editor of karaoke chain Lucky Voice (@luckyvoice) and Kerry Bridge, Head of Digital Communication at Dell (@KerryatDell)

I feel quite happy with the approach I’ve taken recently in analysing events not in terms of a step-by-step run through – you can get that by doing a hashtag search for #BR140 – but by doing a few positive and negative take-outs from the day.

The Good:

• The interview format for Dan worked very well, and having someone there from a big, recognisable brand talking with absolute honesty about their failures as well as their successes was fantastic. His positive attitude towards Innocent’s followers and faith in transparency and honesty were refreshing. It helps that he’s an engaging speaker. Taking it away from the speaker and presentation format – which I’m not knocking, especially as it worked for me! – was timely and added more of a workshop feel.
• Pitching was to the right level of audience, and the different items on the programme rolled fluidly from one to the other. Around 25% of the people there hadn’t used Twitter before, and most of them seemed a lot more confident and happy at the thought by the end of the day.
• As a speaker, I appreciated the thoughtful organisation done by Mark beforehand, who invited questions from us that the panel could address (as a backup in case the audience was uncertain) and reminded us of the key areas to cover.
• The balance of the panel and speakers was good. Agencies, start ups, charities and big corporations were all given their due which, to a mixed audience, was important. We all want to know we’re getting ideas from ‘people like us’ at the same time as opening our minds to behaving differently. I relentlessly tweeted quotes from Dan because it was nice to know that a big company has the same attitude to tweeting as us!
• I have to give a heads-up to the lovely scones, jam, cream and tea. Mmm.

The Bad:

• There wasn’t much really. We had a bit of a technology fail, which was mostly down to a Mac’s screen resolution getting pissy with the projector screen. It really could have been worse, though.

The Standout Take-Outs:

• Mark’s exhortations to be honest – if there’s one thing worse than a fail, it’s a fail that’s blamed suspiciously on people unable to defend themselves *cough* Habitat intern *cough*.
• Dan’s “just go and do it” advice. We operate on much the same principle. And I would advocate always trying out the tools under your own name first before trying to do it professionally; in fact I suggest it very strongly every time a new centre wants to tweet for us!
• Kerry’s advice to deal with crises in the right space; if people are worrying on Twitter and YouTube, respond there, taking every step you reasonably can to offer good customer service.
• Stuart’s reminder that it’s supposed to be fun, and that people following might not mind being sold to occasionally, but that’s not why they signed up. Be prepared to go off-topic and off-beat to get really engaged followers.

The Summary:

You probably won’t want to attend the next such event in February if you’re already confident and opinionated about Twitter, as it’ll probably be a touch too basic. But if you’re floundering, it’s a good, non-judgemental environment in which to air concerns and have your questions answered, from basic how-to (someone asked about hashtags, for example) to worries about time management.

Then again, even if you are pretty confident, you can never know it all about Twitter and you can always learn from someone else’s example.

 

*The actual plural is ‘formulae’. Given my wealth of typos, it’s probably wrong that this bothers me as much as it does.

[Via http://alexandragoldstein.co.uk]

Tá difícil... se descadastrar da Dell

Amanda, de São Paulo/SP, fala da inconveniência causada pela Dell e da frustração por não ser atendida como ela esperava:

Cansada de receber tantos e-mails da Dell (quase diariamente) resolvi pedir a exclusão do meu e-mail. Para a minha surpresa, depois de ter clicado no botão amarelo (“Não desejo mais receber…”),  chegou o seguinte email:

“OBRIGADO POR SE CADASTRAR NA DELL! Amanda, A partir de agora, você receberá ofertas exclusivas da Dell e os últimos lançamentos de produtos e serviços através do email xxxxxxxx@xx.com. Se um dia você desejar realizar mudanças nos seus dados ou cancelar seu cadastro, acesse aqui. Você também poderá atualizar as suas preferências a qualquer momento. Aguarde que o primeiro e mail será enviado em breve.”

Piada né!? É um exemplo de como não fazer e-mail marketing.

[Via http://tadificil.wordpress.com]

DELL Vostro 1014

Processor Intel Core2Duo T5870 (2.0GHz;2MB;800MHz) Memory 2GB DDR2 Graphics Card Intel GMA 4500MHD Display 14.1″ WXGA LED HD Screen Audio Build-in Stereo Speaker Hard Drive 250GB HDD Optical Drive DVD-RW Dual Layer Connectivity WiFi 802.11b/g/N-Series; 10/100 fast ethernet; 56K Modem; Bluetooth I/O Ports 4 USB 2.0; 2.0MP WebCam; 5-in-1 Card Reader Others Carrying Case Operating System Free DOS Chassis & Weight Black & Red Chassis Box Includes Complete Charger; CD Recovery or Driver Built-in; Manual Book Warranty On-site Service harga Rp.5.900.000,- Harga sewaktu-waktu dapat berubah harap hubungi kami untuk update harga terbaru.

Weekend Links: 14 November 2009

50 penemuan terbaik 2009.

25 of Your Favorite Video Games Recreated as Dioramas.

Howl’s Moving Castle. Dari lego.

Seni Barcode Jepang.

Toilet roll pixel art. So simple. So cute (kamar tidurnya kelihatannya nyaman juga).

10 Geeky Laws That Should Exist, But Don’t:

1. Munroe’s Law: A person in a geeky argument who can quote xkcd to support his position automatically wins the argument.

Dell Inspiron Zino HD Desktop. Mini.

Resume/portfolio bergaya D & D. Sneakers bergaya D & D.

Foto komposit galaksi Bimasakti. 648 megapixel.

Ini mungkin satu Facebook Group yang saya mau gabung dengan sukarela: Mengumpulkan 1 juta pendukung agar… pasangannya mengizinkan rumahnya dijadikan kapal bajak laut. I wish I was kidding.

LOLCUTE:

Forced-perspective photography.

15 hal yang layak diketahui tentang kopi. Hooray Coffee poster.

Wikipedia merangkum rentang tahun 2000-2009.

A viral which got more than 5.3 million viewers

As I have said earlier in my blog, Online is getting bigger and deeper day by day. The amount of time we spend online is startling. There is Facebook, Orkut, Yahoo, Rediff, Hotmail, Youtube, now a days people shop online, share their views on blogs, they tweet. There are so many things to do Online.

People have built their brands or products through this medium. There are many mediums to market the brand but the most effective and cheap medium is Online.

But you need to know the trick to market your story or your product or your brand or your resume or anything else; few people know how to use it, many don’t. 

What if you are Sony or Dell or Michael Jackson or Steve Jobs or Lindsay Lohan ? You name the medium and you have that, you can market it through every possible medium.  

• PR,
• Print,
• Outdoor,
• Internet,
• TV,
• In-films
• And there are multiple options as well.

But the problem arises when you are not a biggie, you are a common man, don’t have the money to spend on these mediums. But you have a remarkable product or brand.

What you will do, How you will market it ? Which option you will use ?

Only one – Online.

You can reach to millions of people around the globe, but the point is why they will waste their valuable time and look at what you are telling them to look at.  

Is there somthing interesting in it for them ?

It should have something unique, something innovative, something which they have never seen it, something makes them enjoy, something engaging. It can be completely wired but the story should be convincing enough for the person to read it or see it.

There are few companies who have promoted their product or brands or themselves through online and they have succeeded in it.

To name a few:

Burger King – ‘Whopper sacrifice’ is a Facebook tool where users have to de-friend people from their friend list in return for a free burger. At the end of the campaign, there were a total of 233,906 users who found themselves dropped from their friends’ friend list. 

Blend Tec – ‘Blend Tec’ makes different types of blenders and these blenders can be used to make stuff like cappuccino, milkshake, making whole vegetables and fruits juices, grating cheese, chopping onions and much more.

 They came out with videos called ‘Will It Blend’, The videos feature Blendtec CEO Tom Dickson liquefying a range of items that are divided into the “Try this at home” and “don’t try this at home” sections. In ‘don’t try this at home’ section features some unusual items that portray the power of the blender from 50 marbles to handful of golf balls to a new iphone .

After being released on YouTube the videos exploded, receiving over 1.7 m views. The traffic to the company’s website, with Alexa ranking jumped to 108,000 spots in the end of 2006.

 BMW: ‘BMW FILMS’ BMW assembled a cast of A-list directors and actors & developed scripts within the basic framework of having a central character that helped people through difficult circumstances using deft driving skills—in a BMW.

 Of course it’s BMW so the production cost was super high but promoting videos was almost free.

More than 10 m films have been viewed from BMWFilms.com. Nearly 2 m people registered on the site, with 60% of those registrants opting to receive more information via e-mail. 

Sunsilk: ‘Sunsilk Gang of Girls’ – India’s first girl online community website. The website has digital makeovers, group blogs, talent shows, job discussion board for girls, chill out zone and many such things.

• Hindustan Lever claims 2,500,000 registrations to Gang of Girls site
• 25,000 girl gangs,
• 200 million hits,
• 12-13 million page views every month.
• The concept got re-launched for rural parts of India as “Sunsilk Saheli”

You might be aware of these online marketing campaigns, they are unique in their own way, at least they were unique when they got launched.

Like these campaigns (ones which I shared with you). Before few days, I came across one of the finest online marketing campaign done by a guy called Juan Mann, a man whose sole mission was to reach out and hug a stranger to brighten up their lives. And his campaign name was ‘Free Hugs Campaign’.

To read about Free Hugs Campaign visit: http://www.freehugscampaign.org/

The video which is shown on Youtube is simply amazing and worth watching. In this age of social disconnectivity and lack of human contact, the effects of the Free Hugs campaign became phenomenal.

The concept is so unique that it got more than 52,000,000 viewers on Youtube.

Online is huge and has billions of users, we just have to know how to use it. If we know how to use it we can build our product or brand completely through this medium.

Have a look at the video, I loved it and am sure you will like it too…

HP acquires 3Com

Oracle, Dell, Xerox and now HP – the high tech world as we knew it is changing fast. Companies that previously stood their ground and was seen as pillars of innovation are know swallowed into mega-companies that will challenge the marketplace with new services, products and offerings. Here is some selected tidbits from BusinessWeek in regards to the deal.

“Through its acquisition of networking gear maker 3Com, Hewlett-Packard will accelerate competition with Cisco Systems (CSCO), especially in China, practically overnight. Then comes the hard part. To make the most of the $2.7 billion deal, HP also needs to revitalize 3Com’s faded brand and persuade Western companies to take a chance on its products, designed largely in Asia.

Analysts were quick to see the logic in the planned acquisition, announced on Nov. 11. HP (HPQ) is attacking Cisco’s dominance of the market for gear that connects computers just as Cisco moves more aggressively into the market for computer systems, where HP is strong. Cisco on Nov. 3 struck a partnership with storage company EMC (EMC) and software company VMware (VMW) aimed atsupplying bundles of computers, storage, networking, and software.”

The article continues…

“HP’s bigger challenge in making the deal a success will be removing the tarnish that remains on the 3Com ’s brand in the U.S. and Europe as a result of years of mismanagement. While 3Com’s data-center networking gear has about 35% of the Chinese market, it’s practically absent from the largest companies in the U.S. and Europe, analysts say.”

Read the full article here.

Other good resources for this topic include: Barrons, WSJ, 24/7 Wall St., Mashable & Techcrunch.

Dell's Inspiron Zino HD now official in Ireland and UK

The Irish may be a few hours ahead of us Yanks, but that’s not stopping us from snooping on their web pages. Dell’s long-awaited Inspiron Zino HD has finally popped official over on the outfit’s IE portal, and considering that it even made a brief appearance on the US site over the weekend, we’re guessing it’s only a matter of hours, minutes and / or nanoseconds before the minuscule desktop shows up everywhere. A total of ten interchangeable colors and designs are being offered on the machine (which gets going at €329), not to mention an integrated HDMI socket and an optional Blu-ray drive. Unlike most of the mini PCs out there today, this one actually has a specs list worth drooling over, and if we can figure out how to get a TV tuner in here, we’d say we just might be looking at our next bedroom HTPC. C’mon US admins — it’s not that early in Round Rock.

[Thanks, Andy]

Update: It’s now live in the UK! Another market down, a few hundred to go…

Gallery: Dell’s Inspiron Zino HD now official in Ireland

Social Networking in Business - Good or Bad?

One of the most vigorously debated issues today is the place of Social Networking in the workplace:
• Should companies be using Social Networking in their marketing mix?
• Should staff be allowed access to Social Networking while at work?

Much of the debate stems from a lack of understanding of what Social Networking is all about and how it should be used, or not used. Many people, in fact, still equate Social Networking with inane information about where somebody is currently sitting doing some introspective navel-gazing, whereas it can – and should – be a highly effective medium for raising the profile of the business, encouraging interaction with all stakeholders and generally enhancing its position in the market.

A great example here is Twitter. While there has been much attention given to an August study from Pear Analytics suggesting that only 8.7% of all Tweets pass along value, the fact is that this misses the point of what a tool like Twitter can really be used for in a business marketing environment. It could, for example, be a wonderful way for customers to get quick status updates on service issues (Direct Tweet the Job Number to your Service Dept) or to see where a shipment is (Direct Tweet a Waybill Number to your Shipping Dept). What about having special-interest customers following a particular product group in your company for news on that product and, possibly, special offers? In fact, the uses for this sort of interaction are limited only by imagination…

Facebook, too, is not simply a tool to show who was drinking too much at the last party. Rather, in the right hands it becomes a great way to promote your business to a wide audience and to gain a set of “Fans” who, by their very presence, are opt-in customers for your marketing efforts. This can be a direct, company page where you share information on your company (or simply a specific product group within your company) and encourage feedback from your “Fans” or can be a more subliminal way of getting your company noticed through making available information of more general use such as the (very topical for this article) Social Media for Small Business set of guides published by Dell.

Of course, if you’re going to open yourself up for public feedback with systems like Twitter and Facebook, it’s essential that you have somebody monitoring your name/page and responding to the inevitable negative comments that will crop up from time to time – thereby turning negatives into easily-seen positives.

Then there are tools like LinkedIn – a great way to find people for your business and to manage your own business profile for those looking at potentially working with you (yes, prospective employees do research your company to see what is out there!).

By tying all of this together with your own Social Networking platform of customers, etc., you can promote your business, conduct online training or product releases, run polls to test issues, manage events and generally make your customers feel part of “your family.” What’s more, you no longer have to contend with outdated mailing lists as your “fans”/customers keep their information updated for you…

So – in answer to the question as to whether companies should be using Social Networking in their marketing mix, an emphatic YES. The secret is to define your objectives and utilise the appropriate tools, remembering, too, that these will evolve and change over time.

And as for the second part of the question – whether employees should have access to Social Networking sites – if this is a part of your marketing mix, your employees need to be a part of it, too. Where there is evidence of individual abuse, as will happen (just as it does with the telephone, coffee breaks, etc., etc.), action against those individuals can be taken – it’s just a question of the right level of monitoring and control, particularly as the lines between work time and leisure time blur in this connected world.

Dell Adamo XPS, el portátil más delgado del mundo al que nadie le importa

Y yo pregunto: ¿A quien le puede interesar el portátil más delgado del mundo si su diseño no esta bien planteado? Esta es la gran apuesta de Dell para la gama de lujo, los Dell Adamo que no han vendido tan bien como esperaban.

No te emociones por este nuevo Dell Adamo XPS, sí que es el portátil más delgado en la actualidad, pero su extraño diseño lo ha matado antes de nacer.

Vamos a echar un vistazo a sus características técnicas. Tenemos un portátil con un grosor de solo 9.99 milímetros de grosor, en comparación con los 1.94cm del MacBook Air. Llega con un procesador Intel Core 2 Duo CULV de 1.4GHz, 4GB de memoria RAM DDR3 de 800MHz, una unidad SSD de 128GB, pantalla WLED de 13.4 pulgadas con una resolución compatible con vídeo en 720p, A-GPS integrado, teclado con retroiluminación, touchpad multitáctil, WiFi 802.11n, 2 puertos USB 2.0, puerto ethernet, salida de audio

Como sistema operativo Windows 7 64bit, claro. Las características, si las lees del tirón te puedes hacer una idea de un portátil que, esta bien, pero que todo cambia al mirarlo. No pesa más de 1.3Kg y sus medidas son de 340 x 272 x 9,99 mm.

No se puede considerar un buen diseño en un portátil cuando el teclado te obliga a estar levantado, en un ángulo que no es nada bueno ergonómicamente. El diseño en sí también es bastante raro, la parte inferior de la pantalla parece que bien lleva todos los componentes o la batería, porque es más gruesa que la pantalla y es donde van las conexiones. Otro gran fallo, no tiene salida de gráficos, ni VGA, ni mini DVI, ni HDMI, nada, no hay posibilidad de conectarlo a una pantalla más grande.

Estará disponible en algunas semanas y aun no se han atrevido a publicar su precio, que ya os aviso será de infarto.

Dell Adamo XPS Hands On: Insanely Thin (and Just Insane)

The Adamo XPS is a daring slice of design and engineering. Quite frankly, it’s batshit insane.

I mean that in the best possible way.

It really is impossibly thin. I felt like I was holding a single sheet of aluminum that was contoured into the curved shape of a laptop. I set it down, gingerly, because I didn’t want to break it, since I didn’t know at the moment that it was $1800. My finger slid across the latch to disengage the heat-sensitive capacitive latch.

There was no visible sign my stroke was the lucky one, so I waited a second before prying the top half upward. It wasn’t entirely seamless—I had to hold the bottom half down as with a single finger as I pulled the display open and the keyboard slid forward, like a notebook out of a Pierce Brosnan-era James Bond era. The metal keys were cold. Which I kind of liked, actually.

When it’s in full bloom, the entire computer is propped up, resting on the front edge of the keyboard and outer edge of the display, so from the side it looks like an L that’s had its foot broken. It’s one reason I think the Adamo XPS is insane—there’s just nothing else like it, and that’s what I love about it, all practical issues aside. Like one I suspected initially, and confirmed when I had to balance it near the window—it’s going to be tricky to actually use in your lap. Do you let the overhang reset against your kneecaps? Or do you perform a balancing act, resting the slim edges on your legs, hoping you don’t lean one way or the other? The design’s not simply to show off your $1800 Ginsu blade by Dell, either—it’s for heat dissipation.

The 1366×768 LED display is sunken, so there’s a rim around it. That’s because the bottom folds up into the top, with a puffy lip, holding the webcam and mic, hanging over it. I worry slightly about the camera lens getting scratched, since it’s exposed whenever the Adamo XPS is closed.

I didn’t get to actually use the computer much, but it’s got essentially the same ultralight guts as the original Adamo, with the important distinction that it’s running Windows 7, so it should be a smoother ride in theory. The 20Whr battery, however, is only rated to deliver 2 hours and 36 minutes of battery life, so it’s going to be a very short ride. There’s a 40Whr battery available that doubles the life, but it murders the whole point of the Adamo XPS. It has 2 USB ports, DisplayPort video out (with an optional HDMI dongle) and a dongle for ethernet.

Really, it’s more a work of art and engineering than a functional computer, but honestly? That’s just fine, though, because it’s a pretty fantastic one.

DELL ANNOUNCES ADAMO XPS, A DAZZLING GIFT IDEA FOR STYLE-MINDED THIS HOLIDAY SEASON
· World’s Thinnest Laptop is 0.4-inch thin · Adamo XPS Reinforces Dell’s Commitment to Craftsmanship and Design

· Advanced Head-Turning Design Offers Full Feature Set for On-The-Go Computing

ROUND ROCK, Texas, Nov 5, 2009 … Last spring Dell set the computing industry abuzz with the introduction of its Adamo brand, and along with it the world’s thinnest laptop PC. Today, the world meets a new champion of thin: The Dell™ Adamo XPS™, measuring 9.99mm or just four-tenths of an inch. Both laptops set new standards for craftsmanship, design and engineering excellence.

Adamo XPS is a stunning laptop whose design provides a unique experience. With the swipe of a finger, the keyboard appears from under the display as the system is open. The feature set challenged engineers to build the latest technology into a compact space, including:

· 4GB* DDR3 800 memory;

· Intel Core 2 Duo (1.4Ghz) ultra-low voltage processor;

· Thin 128GB SSD for faster, cooler, quieter and more durable storage than traditional hard drives;

· A 13.4-inch high-definition display.

The attention to detail is apparent in the black, jewelry box-like packaging that is as striking as the laptop itself. A tug on a cloth loop reveals the Adamo XPS and assorted accessories that accompany the system. The Adamo XPS was recently recognized as the hottest Windows 7 product by leading technology analyst Rob Enderle with Digital Trends.

Adamo, derived from the Latin word meaning "to fall in love," is a flagship in a line of products created to disrupt the personal computing space with the combination of new design aesthetics, personalization choices and sought-after technologies.

The Adamo by Dell brand was launched last March with the first Adamo laptop, which combined high-performance technologies in a finely-machined aluminum case only .65-inch thick.

The pencil-thin Adamo XPS weighs just over 3 pounds** and measures 13.39 x 10.71 inches. Dell expects to begin taking orders and shipping the Adamo XPS with Microsoft® Windows® 7 pre-installed in time for the holidays. The Adamo XPS is priced starting at $1799. More information is available at www.adamobydell.com

[Dell]

Battuto Hosni, il nuovo direttore dell'Unesco è la bulgara Bokova

Battuto Hosni, il nuovo direttore dell’Unesco è la bulgara Bokova – [ Il Foglio.it › La giornata ]

La bulgara Irina Bokova è stata eletta direttrice generale dell’Unesco, battendo il controverso candidato egiziano Faruk Hosni, accusato di antisemitismo.

Negli ultimi giorni lo scontro tra i due si era tramutato in un vero testa a testa tanto che ci sono volute cinque sessioni di voto per individuare il nuovo capo del massimo organo culturale delle Nazioni Unite.

In passato il ministro egiziano aveva infatti dichiarato pubblicamente di voler “bruciare di persona” qualsiasi libro di autori israeliani si trovasse nelle biblioteche del Cairo.

Fonte:
http://www.ilfoglio.it/soloqui/3398

I am Officially Nerd-certified...kinda

Ubuntu 9.10 Boot Up Screen

I was pretty damn giddy for the release of Windows 7 a couple weeks ago, and honestly I have to admit it was hella geeky trying to explain to my friends that Windows 7 is good. But now I am officially a board-certified Nerd. On October 29, Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic Koala) came out as a final release. For those that have no idea what Ubuntu is, it is basically a variant Linux Operating System. So yes, I’ve installed Linux on my Dell netbook. And yes, I have completed the Operating System Trifecta of Windows, Mac OS-X, and Linux.

To be honest, I know nothing about Ubuntu/Linux. What I do know is that it is completely open-source and it is free. The installation process was fairly easy as I used my trusty USB key to install Ubuntu on my Dell netbook. The process was pretty fast and in less than 30 minutes I had it up and running. I was pretty skeptical about trying Linux because I have no clue how to use it, but I gotta say Ubuntu made it fairly easy and straightforward to get cozy with. In fact it was so easy to get used that I got bored with it in about an hour. I did run across some problems as Ubuntu did crash on me a couple times, and I had an extremely difficult time trying to get my wireless card drivers to work. It maybe me just getting used to Linux. Really, I have no idea why I installed Ubuntu on my netbook but I do like that it takes up just 2 GBs to run and it is a pretty fast OS (booting up and shutting down). Also I like that OpenOffice was included along with some other useful apps, and there is a simple interface to search for more free applications. I downloaded my favorite media player – VLC – with ease. Out of the box, it is not a flashy OS like Windows or OS-X but for a netbook it is excellent. I hated how slow and bloated Windows XP was on the netbook (THANKS DELL!). Honestly, I wouldn’t install it on my main computer but for a netbook Ubuntu just gets the job done. All I know is right now is perhaps the best time for consumers to pick and choose their OS of choice – Snow Leopard, Windows 7, and Ubuntu 9.10 are all good.

This isn’t the first time I’ve tried installing Linux. WAAAY back in like 1996 my friend Phil tried to install Linux Red Hat on my other friend’s HP Windows 95 computer because we were curious little kids back then. Lets just say it was a complete and utter disaster and never dabbled with it until now. Boy, have times changed…I guess I did it for the nerds.

The UI is like the bastard child of Windows and Mac. Or maybe Windows and Mac got their UI design from Linux. Hmmm...

Log-In Screen

Notebook Bekas - Laptop Second - Dell Inspiron 9300 Notebook Computer

laptop second

The Dell Inspiron . adalah persembahan terbaru dari produsen yang dimuliakan komputer pribadi. Luas dipuji sebagai sebuah Hiburan pembangkit tenaga listrik . yang menjanjikan keunggulan untuk memberikan performa yang luar biasa bagi penggemar multimedia. Biarkan S melihat apa yang membuat komputer laptop second notebook ini yang menonjol bahwa hal itu.

Anda harus mengagumi Dell. Tidak sebulan pergi dengan di mana Notebook Second suatu model baru yang ditawarkan harga berkurang dan seluruh paket yang Laptop Bekas manis dengan dimasukkannya semacam upgrade gratis. Benar untuk membentuk Dell Inspiron . komputer notebook adalah contoh utama dari semua itu karena merupakan Laptop Second model baru fully loaded dan tersedia bagi Anda pada harga yang menarik.

Beberapa fitur top model khusus ini meliputi

A quot layar Sempurna untuk para gamer dan pengamat Notebook Second film.

Intel Pentium M Processor . GHz/ MB Notebook Bekas Cache/ MHz FSB laptop second .

Sebuah kekalahan GB memori.

GB hard drive.

Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition .

x CD / DVD burner DVD /-RW dengan lapisan ganda kemampuan menulis.

McAfee Security Center.

Tahun Service Plan.

. ada yang ringan berat dalam di hanya lebih dari lbs. Tentu saja jika Anda pindah dari unit desktop berat akan tampak tidak penting.

NaNoWriMo--Getting Ready to Roll

Yep, I’m doing NaNoWriMo this November.  At first I was just going to tell y’all that this blog was probably going to get quiet next month (not like it hasn’t happened before) but I’m going to try and lay in some posts in the draft box before Nov. 1 so I can pop a few up here and there as I go.  

This week has been all about getting ready.  Getting my work space ready, clearing a spot on my cluttered home desk (I may be the only person I know with five full pencil cups–anyone else want to fess up?) for the babyDell and the coffee.   

Honestly, the biggest bribe for this whole thing (besides the prospect of actually getting a draft done) may be that I will allow myself all the coffee I want.  Love the stuff; limit myself to two hearty mugs a day.  Usually.  Not this November.  I suspect it may be the sole thing getting me out of bed at 5:00 am. At first anyway. 

Lining up all the books I’ve been using to research my subject.  From what I understand, I’ll be writing so fast, I might not be able to do much more than glance at them, maybe touch them if I’m lucky.  But it’s good to know they’ll be there, waiting for me to delve into after it’s all over, when I’m revising.

What’s in this black box?  Yes, well, wouldn’t you like to know?  It’s related to the novel, but its contents are secret right now.  Another reassuring presence.  Besides, secrets can be very motivating.

According to NaNoWriMo’s founder, Craig Baty, one should not have a bed visible in one’s writing space–nor a cat (see upper corner) demonstrating its benefits.  Unfortunately, my writing space is also a guest bedroom/daybed I normally purpose for reading and napping.  I should be able to resist it, though.  I know going near it would be a disaster.  If resisting turns out to be a problem, I could always cover it with tacks or something.

And the picture wouldn’t be complete without Garfield, our older cat, quite bereft these days now that we have acquired a kitten. Normally Garfield isn’t interested in attention from anyone but my husband but he’s become very needy lately, even asking me for some lovin’.

I feel lucky, I have had plenty of 2008 winner Monda Fason’s advice to shore me up and let me know what’s what.  Nervous but hopeful. That’s me. 

Bye y’all,
SV

4Q = Best Quarter

This is a GREAT quarter to be a tech geek, or to even be moderately interested in technology.  Let’s start with mobile phones:  the Motorola Droid is coming, you’ve likely seen their terrific commercials playing jokes on the iPhone; “a Storm is blowing in”, actually a Storm2 as RIM and Verizon are finally releasing the follow up to all the original Storm bashers and their complaints; and of course, the greatest Blackberry ever made, the Bold 9700 (they should’ve just stuck with the codename for this device as its market name… the Onyx).  Computers: Apple released a new line of MacBooks and updated the iMac, Windows 7 came to official fruition, and of course the sexiest piece of tech I’ve seen in awhile, the new Dell Adamo XPS which will be half as thin as a MacBook Air will be announced in November.

And with the holiday deals coming up its going to be hard to resist easing out of that recession without some new gadgets.  It’s a great time to buy and ATLdigitized would love to show you exactly what you need!

Dell Inspiron One 19 Takes Off For Japan Flight

Dell’s latest all-in-one PC won’t be making any pit stops in the U.S., its a first class trip to Japan for the Inspirion One 19. An upgrade from the Studio One 19, this PC comes in two basic configurations. One option is a 2.6GHz or 2.93GHz Intel processor, Windows 7 Home Premium, 2GB; the other is 4GB of RAM, an 18.5-inch display (1,366 x 768), a 320GB or 500GB SATA hard drive and a DVD burner. Looking to import? All it costs is $770 (¥69,980). No U.S. release date has been confirmed.

Dell Streak con Android 2.0

Desde que Michael Dell anuncio que Dell lanzaría un smartphone con Android 2.0 dentro de poco en los Estados Unidos, han empezado a circular varios rumores de como sera el aspecto del equipo, y al parecer el rumor de que sera al mas puro estilo de una Internet Tablet iría ganando.

Se han filtrado algunas imágenes y un video del presunto móvil. Aunque algunos aseguran que en realidad no es un móvil, sino que un Internet Tablet, otros simplemente creen que este es el terminal del cual hablo Michael.

El equipo contara con una pantalla capacitiva multitáctil de 5 pulgadas con una resolución de 800 x 480 píxeles, conectividad 3G, Wi-Fi y Bluetooth, una cámara de 5 megapíxeles con doble flash LED y se encontrara corriendo bajo Android 2.0 como sistema operativo.

Link: Streak

Fuente: Wayerless

Brazilian Paint Manufacturer, Tintas Iquine, Migrates from UNIX to Red Hat Enterprise Linux to Increase Performance and Improve Security

Brazilian Paint Manufacturer, Tintas Iquine, Migrates from UNIX to Red Hat Enterprise Linux to Increase Performance and Improve Security

FAST FACTS

Customer: Tintas Iquine

Industry: Manufacturing: Paint and Tints

Geography: Brazil

Business Challenge: Increase the stability and performance of business critical ERP applications

Software: Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Datasul, Progress Database, Trend Micro Security Solution

Hardware: Intel Xeon processor based Dell PowerEdge 2950 servers

Migration Path: UNIX/RISC based servers to Red Hat Enterprise Linux on Intel Xeon processor based Dell PowerEdge servers

Benefits: Red Hat virtualization enabled increased stability, performances, and increased security on redundancy and backup, and Red Hat Satellite simplified systems management

Download the case study [PDF]

BACKGROUND
Tintas Iquine, a Brazilian paints, coatings, and special resins company, produces more than 1,500 products including; industrial paints, varnish, sealing, resins, pastes, and is known for its rigorous quality control, and its use of new technologies to improve its processes, products and deliver more value to its customers, paint and building material resellers and retailers.

In operation since 1974, Tintas Iquine’s two factories have the capacity to produce 8 million liters of products per month, guaranteeing to the company 60% to 70% of the entire Brazilian market, operate 24/7 and are fully computerized in order to achieve enhanced production capabilit, security, and in addition, less impactful to the environment. Tintas Iquine achieved the certificate of approval in NBR ISO 9001:2000, which signifies the company’s compliance with the requirements of the standard of Quality Management System in coatings and was the only company to win the certificate of quality of the Brazilian Association of Manufacturers of Paints.

BUSINESS CHALLENGE
Tintas Iquine grew significantly in a short amount of time, with sales volume increases of 20-30 percent, the company increased in size from 200 to 500 employees, and needed a operating platform to improve its critical Enterprise Resource Planning applications and increase the IT team’s ability to scale for the company’s growth.

The existing UNIX based server environment at Tintas Iquine supported the ERP system, database, BI, CRM and security tools, consisted of a disparate, aging infrastructure that resulted in a lower application performance level and required resources devoted to systems management and monitoring, making it increasingly difficult and costly.

The new operating platform needed to increase the ERP application’s performance, security, and provide a simplified systems management tool.

SOLUTION
The Tintas Iquine’ IT team was well versed with open source operating platforms, and especially favored Red Hat Enterprise Linux due to the enterprise support, stability, and performance the platform provides, in addition to Red Hat Satellite systems management, that would solve the company’s systems management issues.

With the expertise in-house and the enterprise-ready reputation, Tintas Iquine confidently decided not to conduct a lengthy technical evaluation of the Red Hat Enterprise Linux platform. Due to the breadth of third-party applications certified to run on Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Tintas Iquine decided to migrate all of its applications from UNIX, as all of the applications would be running under only one operating system, thus increasing the performance and reducing systems management resources.

The migration to Red Hat Enterprise Linux involved the virtualization of 12 machines to supports the company’s Progress database, Business Intelligence (BI) applications, CRM and Trend Micro Security Solutions.

BENEFITS
Tintas Iquine’s implementation of Red Hat Enterprise Linux has allowed the company to scale for growth, increase application performance, reduce costs, and simplify systems management. The satisfaction and gain of performance were immediately realized by the IT staff and throughout the company, as application users began to work more efficiently and more productively.

The virtualization and the migration to Red Hat Enterprise Linux from UNIX, provided Tintas Iquine increased server utilization, and the management process on the Red Hat Enterprise Linux based servers have shown greater agility and ease of use, when compared to the Windows based servers, due to less interruptions in the maintenance process.

With Red Hat Enterprise Linux, the performance in the application processing has increased 30 percent, and the costs have fallen about 50 percent, thus confirming the company’s decision to migrate to Red Hat.

Although Tintas Iquine’s Oracle database is running in a Windows platform, due to the results of the UNIX to Red Hat migration, the company plans to gradually migrate all systems to Red Hat Enterprise Linux.

10 แบรนด์ดัง สร้างแบรนด์ด้วย Social Media

จักรพงษ์ คงมาลัย

Positioning Magazine สิงหาคม 2552

ฉบับนี้จริงๆ ผมคิดจะเขียนเรื่องของ Social Media และการ Engage ให้คนติดอยู่กับแบรนด์ของเรามากขึ้น แต่พอเจอรายงานฉบับหนึ่งทางอินเทอร์เน็ตที่ชื่อว่า The World’s Most Valuable Brands, Who is the Most Engaged? หรือแปลเป็นไทยว่าชื่อว่า แบรนด์ดังระดับโลก แบรนด์ไหนน่าติดตามที่สุด (Engage คนได้มากที่สุด) ของ Charlene Li อดีตนักวิเคราะห์ชื่อดังจาก Forrester เจ้าของหนังสือ “Groundswell” ที่ว่าด้วยบทวิเคราะห์โลกอินเทอร์เน็ตที่โด่งดังเมื่อปี 2008 ก็อดเอามาแปลให้คุณผู้อ่านก่อนไม่ได้ สำหรับรายงานฉบับนี้ผมอยากให้คุณผู้อ่านดาวน์โหลดไปอ่านกันจากลิงก์น http://www.altimetergroup.com/2009/07/engagementdb.html

ในรายงานฉบับนี้ Charlene ได้ค้นพบว่า บริษัทที่ทำ Brand Engagement ผ่านทาง Social Media ที่มีประสิทธิภาพ จะมีผลประกอบการที่ดีขึ้นด้วย โดยเธอพบว่า การทำ Brand Engagement นั้นมีความสัมพันธ์กับผลประกอบการทางการเงินขององค์กร และเธอกับทีมงานได้จัดทำ 100 แบรนด์ดังระดับโลกที่ใช้ Social Media ในการดึงให้ คนติดตามแบรนด์ของตัวเอง โดยมี Top 10 เรียงลำดับตามแต้มที่ทีมงานกำหนดไว้ดังนี้ครับ

1.Starbucks (127)

2. Dell (123)

3. eBay (115)

4. Google (105)

5. Microsoft (103)

6. Thomson Reuters (101)

7. Nike (100)

8. Amazon (88)

9. SAP (86)

10. เสมอกันระหว่าง – Yahoo!/Intel (85)

บริษัทอันดับต้นๆ จากทั้ง 100 อันดับนี้มีผลประกอบการที่ดีขึ้น เพราะรายได้โดยเฉลี่ยเพิ่มขึ้น 18% ในช่วง 1 ปีที่ผ่านมา เปรียบเทียบกับกลุ่มบริษัท ที่มีคนติดตามทาง Social Media น้อยที่สุดจะมีรายได้ตกลงไป 6% ในช่วงเวลาเดียวกัน ซึ่งแน่นอนว่าอันนี้รวมไปถึง กำไรและรายได้สุทธิด้วย แม้รายงานจะไม่ชี้ชัดว่ามีความสัมพันธ์โดยตรงระหว่างความสามารถทางการเงินกับการทำ Brand Engagement แต่สิ่งที่ทางผู้จัดทำได้ระบุชัดเจนก็คือมันมีความเกี่ยวเนื่องกันอยู่ อาทิ บริษัทที่เปิดให้ผู้บริโภคเข้ามามีส่วนร่วมจะมีผลประกอบการที่ดีกว่าเพราะว่าบริษัทเหล่านั้นโฟกัสในสิ่งที่ตัวเองทำมากกว่าที่จะมุ่งเน้นแข่งขันจนลืมตัวเอง ในรายงานฉบับนี้ได้ยกตัวอย่างแบรนด์ดังอย่าง Starbucks, Dell, SAP, และ Toyota เป็นตัวอย่างในการอธิบายถึงการค้นพบหลักๆ (Key finding) ของทีมงานว่า

เน้นคุณภาพ ไม่ใช่แค่ปริมาณ

การสร้างความน่าติดตาม หรือการสร้าง Engagement เป็นอะไรที่มากกว่าเพียงแค่สร้าง Blog ขึ้นมาแล้วเปิดให้คนโพสต์อะไรก็ได้ มันเป็นอะไรที่มากกว่าจะเปิดโปรไฟล์ใน Facebook แล้วให้คนมาเขียนอะไรก็ได้ใน Wall ของเรา แต่มันเป็นเรื่องที่ว่าเราจะรักษาให้เนื้อหาใน Blog ของเราสดใหม่อยู่ตลอดเวลาได้อย่างไร และแน่ใจได้ว่าเราตอบความเห็นของผู้บริโภค ที่เข้ามาออกความเห็นกับแบรนด์ของเรา มันเป็นเรื่องของการสร้างความสัมพันธ์กับลูกค้านั่นเอง

กำหนดให้การทำ Brand Engagement เป็นงานของทุกคนในบริษัท

Social Media ไม่ได้เป็นงานของใครคนใดคนหนึ่งอีกต่อไป หากแต่ว่าทางบริษัทนั้นๆ ได้ให้ความสำคัญกับ Social Media ชนิดว่ามันเป็นงานของทุกคนที่จะต้องช่วยกันทำความเข้าใจ สื่อสารภาพลักษณ์ของบริษัท สร้างความสัมพันธ์กับลูกค้าด้วยช่องทางต่างๆ ที่เหมาะสม ทำกันคนละนิดคนละหน่อยไม่กี่นาทีในแต่ละวัน ถ้าพนักงานในบริษัทช่วยกัน มันจะกลายเป็นพลังที่ส่งผลถึงผู้บริโภคแน่นอนไม่ทางใดก็ทางหนึ่ง

ทำอะไรสักอย่างเกี่ยวกับ Social Media ได้แล้ว

กลยุทธ์ในการทำการตลาดผ่าน Social Media อย่างคุ้มค่านั้นขึ้นอยู่กับหลายๆ ปัจจัยซึ่งรวมไปถึง อุตสาหกรรมที่คุณทำงานอยู่ด้วย ถ้าหากว่าลูกค้ารายใหญ่ของคุณไม่เชื่อเรื่อง Social Media ว่ามันเป็นช่องทางการสื่อสาร หรือถ้าองค์กรของคุณต่อต้านที่จะสร้างความน่าติดตามในทางใดทางหนึ่ง คุณคงต้องเริ่มต้นจากสิ่งที่ง่ายๆ และเล็กๆ ก่อน ค่อยเป็นค่อยไป แต่คุณจำเป็นจะต้องเริ่มทำอะไรสักอย่าง ได้แล้ว ไม่เช่นนั้นคุณก็จะรับความเสี่ยงที่จะแพ้แบรนด์อื่นๆ ไม่ใช่เพียงแค่แบรนด์ในอุตสาหกรรมของคุณ แต่ยังรวมไปถึงการเข้าถึงจิตใจลูกค้าด้วย

ทำอย่างมุ่งมั่นและจริงจัง ไม่ใช่เรื่องเล่นๆ

การสร้างความน่าติดตามนั้นจะทำแบบผิวเผินไม่ได้ หากแต่เราจำเป็นต้องทำอย่างสม่ำเสมอ และจำเป็นต้องลงทุนในการหาคนที่มีความรู้ความเข้าใจเรื่อง Social Media เข้ามาเป็นหูเป็นตาของแบรนด์ โดยจัดจ้างคนอย่างเป็นทางการ แต่ถ้าบริษัทคุณมีข้อจำกัด เรื่องบุคลากร ก็ให้พยายามมีส่วนร่วมกับผู้บริโภคอย่างสม่ำเสมอเท่าที่จะทำได้

ในตัวรายงานยังมีการอธิบายกรณีศึกษาอื่นๆ แบบละเอียดยิบของ Starbucks, Dell, Toyota, SAP ไว้ได้อย่างน่าสนใจมาก ถึงขนาดว่าจัดวางคนกี่คน ทำกันอย่างไรบ้าง แต่น่าเสียดายว่าพื้นที่เรามีจำกัด อยากให้ลองอ่านกันดูนะครับ

Microsoft reboots or do they!!

After the Vista debacle, Microsoft changed the way it makes software. The result – Windows 7 – is winning raves. Can a new operating system (and a new attitude) help the company take on Google?

Microsoft

With Microsoft’s founder and chairman, Bill Gates, trotting the globe in a quest to abolish diseases, his handpicked successor, CEO Steve Ballmer, has had most of a decade to move the company beyond its two biggest cash cows, the Windows operating system and the Office productivity suite. So far, not so good.

The company’s web forays, such as MSN, have only highlighted the dominance of Google and Yahoo. In software for smartphones, there is Apple, RIM (RIMM), and everybody else. MP3 players? Microsoft’s Zune hardly merits a mention. And even the core franchise has suffered. In the face of slowing PC sales and the economic pall, Microsoft’s fiscal 2009 revenue actually contracted, to $58.4 billion from more than $60 billion in fiscal 2008 — and the company missed its earnings estimate by more than $1 billion.

But the biggest failure under Ballmer’s tenure was self-inflicted. Vista was meant to be a wholesale reimagining of Windows, the brand name for Microsoft’s operating systems dating back to the early 1980s. Every so often the company unveils a new OS, blandly named for the year of the release (Windows 95, Windows 98) or a geeky abbreviation (Windows XP is short for Windows Experience). Vista had a marketing-friendly moniker, a fancy user interface, new security architecture, a better file-storage system, and much more.

After a protracted six-year development process, much internal squabbling, false starts, blown deadlines, and broken promises to partners, the engineering team mopped up 50 million lines of code, wrung it all out into a shrink-wrapped box, and heaved it onto the world in early 2007.

The timing couldn’t have been worse. Vista required top-end hardware to operate even while users were downgrading from desktops to notebooks. The bloated OS was incompatible with printers, web cams, and device drivers of all sorts. Early adopters scurried back to Windows XP; many corporations skipped the upgrade altogether. Worst of all, Vista energized the cloud computing chorus, led by Google (GOOG), whose vision of the future involves ubiquitous broadband, a good web browser, and everything else hosted on the Internet. No sophisticated operating system necessary. “Vista was the biggest debacle in the history of the company,” says one former senior executive. “People were ashamed to say they worked on it.”

But here’s some good news: On Oct. 22 Vista will be safely behind Microsoft (MSFT). On that day, the company will introduce a successor, Windows 7, and guess what? It doesn’t suck. In fact, it’s really pretty good. For all the pomp around each new version of the iPhone, the latest Kindle, or Google’s next beta, Wave, Windows 7 is sure to go down as the technology launch of the year. Critics love it, and IT managers are ready to buy. A recent Credit Suisse survey says that a quarter of corporate customers plan to upgrade within two years. Analysts estimate that the new OS could boost Microsoft’s revenue by more than $3 billion over that time and ignite the entire ecosystem built on Windows — from computer makers like Dell and Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) to third-party software vendors, resellers, and system supporters. It could be the shot in the arm the entire tech sector has been looking for.

On a warm September day in Redmond, Wash., sitting in a conference room in Building 34, the economic epicenter of the Northwest, Ballmer is not ready to declare the doldrums over. A stock market turnaround means little in the face of staggering unemployment. But he remains hopeful because he thinks this version of Windows is a winner. “It’s a great product. We did our best. Is that going to cause huge increases in spending by the world’s businesses? I can’t make that promise,” he says, “although I think things are becoming slightly less cautious. There’s some hope that says, ‘Hey, look, maybe this is part of the turnaround.’”

Back from the abyss

It’s just a hint of optimism from an executive who has been bearish on the economy of late, an indication that the mood is shifting at one of the most self-loathing, hypercritical corporate cultures you’re ever likely to encounter. As bad as the Vista years have been, Microsoft seems to be getting its act together. The Wall Street collapse stunned the company, and management reacted with uncharacteristic alacrity. “There was a week or two where everything seemed to come to a stop,” says CFO Chris Liddell, “and we said, ‘We’re going to have to operate in a different way.’ “The company laid off 5,000 employees and instituted a “10-point plan” to cut wasteful spending, from vendor allotments to travel and entertainment.

Meanwhile, executives ramped up development cycles. This past summer the company kicked off, in its words, “a year of product launches unlike any other in Microsoft history.” Since then, Ballmer et al. have revamped Windows Server and unveiled the Zune HD line of MP3 players. On the way: overhauls of Windows Mobile, Office, Internet Explorer, Xbox Live, Bing (its new search engine), and the introduction of Azure, a plunge into the enemy territory of cloud computing. Microsoft is also about to venture into retailing, an area conquered by longtime nemesis Apple (AAPL).

All this, says Bob Muglia, president of the server and tools division, is part of what he calls Microsoft v.3 — a play on the old saw that it takes the company three releases to get a product right. “In the Vista era, we lost track of a bunch of things,” he says. “Now Windows 7 has shipped, and it’s the official start of [a time of] mature leadership, competitive focus, aggressive competition — and I think you see the results. You could say it’s us getting our mojo back.”

If Steve Ballmer has one attribute of a great leader, it’s an ability to inspire the troops — which is what he’s about to do standing onstage in July at a convention center in downtown New Orleans. The Big Easy is broiling in a midsummer haze. The locals have cleared out, making way for the 5,000 Microsoft partners — resellers, builders, software developers — who have gathered at a conference organized in their honor. Ballmer is, naturally, the headline act. He’s peeled off some pretty outlandish keynotes over the years, including “Steve Ballmer Going Crazy” (2 million views on You- Tube) — in which he huffs, “Come on, give it up for me!” — and the much-remixed “Developers” (1 million-plus views), where a heavier Ballmer performs a sweaty, arrhythmic stomp dance.

Today job one is to inject some optimism into the crowd. Ballmer had a tough year. He took a modest (for a man worth $11 billion) pay cut. But his small-business partners are reeling from the downturn. “This is the most phenomenal year we’ve ever had for technology releases,” he rumbles, ticking off reasons to be hopeful about 2010. Microsoft vows to keep investing $9 billion-plus in R&D, it’ll increase spending on partner support, and most of all it will keep fighting competitors — because, well, that’s what the company does best. “We don’t go home,” he says. “We just keep coming and coming and coming. We’re tenacious, tenacious, tenacious. Boom!”

That’s not entirely true. Over the years the company has cowered at least a few times. It bailed on Microsoft Money (a personal finance product designed to oust Quicken), would-be YouTube killer Soapbox, the long-forgotten BOB operating system for kids, tablet PCs, web-enabled TVs, etc. But the company has surely disrupted many markets — from web browsers to console games — by offering a fresh perspective. “Novell said, ‘The world is about single purpose operating systems,’ ” explains Ballmer, back at Building 34.”We had to say, ‘No, the world is really about multiple-purpose operating systems.’ Lotus and WordPerfect said, ‘The world is character-based,’ and we said, ‘No, let’s try some graphics.’ Apple said, ‘The world is a proprietary software-hardware combination,’ and we said, ‘No, the world needs to be open to choice.’”

The enemy within

Such conquests, while dated, have earned the company a reputation for being obsessed with competitors — a characterization Ballmer does little to diminish. Unlike most executives of his ilk, he says what’s on his mind, which can include calling Google a “house of cards” or referring to Linux as a “cancer that … attaches itself to everything it touches.” He once laughed derisively on camera at the prospect of the iPhone ever succeeding. But in Microsoft’s core business, there is no real competition. Various versions of Windows run more than 95% of all PCs. So when it came to preventing another Vista, Ballmer had to find the enemy within.

Windows 7 is a departure from Vista in many ways. It will be unveiled on time after a three-year development cycle. It’s compatible with previous versions and has excised all the security-permissions protocols that were lampooned in Apple’s “I’m a Mac” ad campaign. It’s sharp-looking, almost as sleek as the Mac OS, and has a few cool new features, like support for multitouch monitors and Aero Shake, which allows users to clear the desktop with a jiggle of the mouse. Perhaps most impressively, it requires less computing horsepower than Vista. That just never happens with a new OS. But the biggest departure comes in scope and ambition. Ballmer claims to have learned something from Vista: It’s no longer advisable to try a “big bang” rollout — i.e., completely reimagine a product as sophisticated and interconnected as Windows.

So he hit control-alt-delete. He brought in a new taskmaster, Steven Sinofsky, to oversee the engineering. Sinofsky became known for hitting deadlines while overseeing the Office group from 2000–07. An executive close to the Windows team characterizes his changes as such: “Reset — or reboot — is something that we hear a lot about the transition,” he says. “What we did was [give] the development team a clarity that was probably missing.” With Vista, teams worked on features simultaneously without an awareness of other schedules. When separate features came together, they were often incompatible. “The goal was to produce a plan for features, but not just a plan — also the motivation, the business rationale,” the executive says.

Sinofsky oversaw the largest beta test in history — more than 8 million users — blogged tirelessly about every little tweak, and kept lines open with partners. The team scrubbed inefficiencies and ushered out a fully functional, backward-compatible OS on time, earning Sinofsky a promotion to president of the Windows division. The new openness has resonated in the marketplace. According to Credit Suisse, 58% of corporate customers were either dissatisfied or extremely dissatisfied with Vista. With Windows 7, it’s 21% dissatisfied and none extremely dissatisfied. The PC makers seem happy too. “With Vista, the expectations were very high, and the customer reaction was not so positive,” says Satjiv Chahil, senior VP of global marketing for HP’s Personal Systems Group. “This time the response has been very positive. It’s what the market has been waiting for.” In the end Windows 7 is what Vista should have been the first time.

Software fades

With its house in order, Microsoft can safely get back to its imperialistic ways. And there’s no bigger land grab than web search. Ballmer has pledged to fund his new search engine, Bing, with as much as 10% of operating income over the next five years (potentially $11 billion). Why do something so risky when he’s lost so much online already? Because the opportunity is simply too big to ignore. Microsoft considers the global search market to be worth as much as $80 billion. And Ballmer recognizes that there’s even more power than money in being the leader. Google.com is what Windows used to be: leverage. Controlling the on-ramp to the web allows a company to distribute a broad array of products, which is what Google does so effectively. “They promote YouTube, they promote Chrome,” he says, referring to Google’s web browser. “If it was us, people would call it an unfair advantage.”

As the importance of client software diminishes, so too does Microsoft as we know it. Bing represents the company’s best hope yet of maintaining its own unfair advantage. And Ballmer thinks that Google, despite its enormous market share, is vulnerable. “There are a lot of negative views right now of what’s going on — Google Books, monopolization, blah, blah, blah,” he says, simultaneously highlighting and waving away a growing anti- Google sentiment. “Put all that aside and you have to ask, ‘Has the experience really changed much? Is it easier to find what you’re looking for? Is there a chance to do a better job?’ I think there’s a real opportunity to do that, and somebody had better seize it. Who’s got the best shot?”

Microsoft launched Bing in May, and it confirms Muglia’s assertion that the company has become more focused on customers. Rather than Google’s minimalist homepage, Bing rotates stunning photos embedded with interesting snippets about various parts of the globe. Like Google, the site acts as a jumping-off point, but has just enough flair to make you want to linger. Visitors see more information than they do in Google results and can even play videos without clicking away. Bing is organized more intuitively, and it outperforms in real-time search — a big plus for the Twitter set.

Early returns have been promising. Before Bing, Microsoft’s search engine, Live Search, had 8% of the market, according to ComScore. After three months Bing stands at 9.3%; meanwhile, Google’s share has dropped 0.4%. Over the summer Microsoft struck a deal for Bing to power the search function across many Yahoo (YHOO) properties. Once the arrangement kicks in, Bing’s share could jump to around 30%. “It’s a pretty good start,” says Yusuf Mehdi, SVP of Microsoft’s online audience group. “Best of all, it’s really hot with certain demographics, like elementary school children and women, because of the aesthetic design and feel.”

Of course the hope is that greater traffic will lure advertisers. Craig Macdonald is the chief marketing officer at media-buying firm Covario. He spends $250 million a year on search ads for clients like McAfee, Intel (INTC), and Procter & Gamble. Impressed with Bing’s aesthetic and buzz, he initially increased spending, but has been disappointed. “We saw a 15% to 20% increase in impressions but a 39% spike in the cost of acquisition,” he says. Compared with Live Search traffic, driven primarily from the MSN homepage, Bing users are younger, more web-savvy, and frugal. “They did a nice job creating buzz, but we said, ‘We’re pulling back.’ “

Microsoft may yet benefit from the anti-Google sentiment that Ballmer calls out. No one likes a monopoly, and everyone’s favorite web brand has become a freeloader in the eyes of the telecom, book, and media industries. Some of Google’s partners have grown disenchanted as well. “With Google, everything’s a black box, completely opaque. You have no idea why things go up or down. They’re impossible to deal with,” says the president of a website that each year generates more than $10 million hosting Google AdSense ads. “Everyone who’s not Google is rooting for someone to be a counterweight.”

It’s not obvious from walking around the company’s sprawling campus that Microsoft is locked in combat with some of the business world’s most ferocious competitors. There’s little resemblance here to the 24/7 sleep-under-the-desk startup culture that permeates Silicon Valley. Many executives are tanned and fit from weekend sails on Puget Sound, hiking up Mount Rainier, golfing, or exploring Machu Picchu. People arrive promptly to meetings, smile broadly, and are exceedingly polite. If quality of life were the most important metric for a recent grad deciding between Redmond and Redwood City, there really would be no choice.

Thin gets Thinner

The continuing onslaught of ultra thin computers that forgo optical drives is heating up. Apple started it all with their ok-spec’ed MacBook Air in 2008. Dell’s been readying itself to be crowned the thinnest, and it looks like they’re serious. Previous attempts with the Dell Adamo to dethrone the MBA were in vain. The Adamo was just too much of a premium machine to be fully appreciated. Dell is hoping round two will hit it with consumers.

Dell released teaser imaged of their new Dell Adamo XPS notebook.

There won’t be 3 USB ports, HDMI, eSata, card readers and all that goodness that is to be expected in a modern notebook, but it it should come with the greatly anticipated Windows 7.

Official tech specs haven’t been released yet and nobody has even gotten a look at the inside of the notebook, so at this point it’s a mystery. It could be an entire touch-sensitive screen like a giant Nintendo DS. The only thing that has been known about the Adamo XPS is that it is 9.99mm thin. What can be taken from these two images is that this machine is thin and that the hinge design is unlike any other.

If Dell can deliver on the specs with perhaps Nvidia Ion graphics for full HD and a decent processor, then this one might be the MBA for Windows fanboys. A competitive price to the MBA wouldn’t hurt either.

The Importance of Workplaces

I’ve just discovered this today.

Workspaces, workplaces, workstations, whatever you wish to call them, they all play a big role in:

1) How much work you get done

2) How fast you get that work done

3) What kind of work you get done

My story is extremely short, but here goes:

Two days ago, my internet went down.  That’s not correct, as my mom could still access it, but I thought that my router was broken, something like that.  So, I go downstairs, and asked my mom if she could access the internet.  She said yes.

I thought it was weird, so I went back upstairs, and tweaked my computer settings, my router settings, connection settings, used different cables, changed my IP, and after an hour of fruitless troubleshooting, I went downstairs.

From the kitchen, where it is close enough to the router to get a “Good” on the Windows Connection Gauge/meter/tray notification, I enabled my Wireless, and connected to my network.  Bingo.  Ran back upstairs with my laptop, and tested the connection with cable, again.  No cigar.  I thought it was a problem with my router.

I moved my whole workstation downstairs in one fell swoop.  I was carrying my computer + my cooler in one hand, along with the battery, my keyboard in my other hand, my mouse in my pocket, backpack on my back, papers, pencils, erasers on top of my laptop, and textbooks that I couldn’t cram into my backpack under my arms.

On the kitchen counter, it was an easy set-up.  Around a minute, and I had everything connected, ready to go, just like it had been there for months.

I stayed downstairs for a day.  Eventually, I was sick of the amount of activity in the kitchen, and the mess of papers and items on the island and the table itself.  My dad would watch TV at the loudest volume, my mom would wash the dishes, and my dog would whine and beg for food.

Later on Sunday, I decided to move.

I first hunted around for an area with good connection.  My router wasn’t top-notch, so it could only reach about half of my house.  Sad, my room was on the opposite end.  Blegh.

Anyways, I go to my room again, hoping, but not expecting, the cable connection to work.  No dice.  I go to my sister’s room (she’s off to college) and set up there with a great connection to the internet.

I quickly bring my stuff up, clear off a short table, one shelf of a large bookshelf, and set up my workplace here.  Right now, the wires of everything are behind my desk, out of site, and the well-lit table I’m at right now is large and without any pockmarks or scratches.

I quickly finished my homework it would have taken me 7 hours to finish at my normal station, even with checking my RSS feeds and other things.  I didn’t time it, but I believe it was around two hours (includes reading other blog entries, CNN, BBC, Wall Street Journal, The Economist, Engadget, Gizmodo, Lifehacker, Wired, GNews, and my mail.  :D)

Now, I do agree with the articles I’ve read on how to be more efficient at work and at school.

First, never work in the same place you sleep.  I feel the stress from normal work doesn’t give you good sleep.  My examples?  I fell asleep in EVERY math test so far.  I didn’t do well at all.

Second, disconnect yourself from all distractions.  Including computers.  (I can’t live up to this, but I’m trying.  The time the power outage occurred, I finished my homework in half an hour.  And I had easily twice the amount to do.

Thirdly, be neat and organized.  Try to start from the beginning of the time you start working in a specific workstation and maintain it all the way to where you currently are.  This piece of advice I learned on my own had helped me with finding the things I want to find, when I want it.  Make sure to have a large, open space for your desk, and have very few items on it.  Have a secondary table for your books, materials, and finished work.  If you have to, have a third for your papers.

Fourthly, give yourself breaks.  I give myself a break after every major assignment finished, or three minors lumped together. EX: After I finish my math and my World Geo homework, I put it away and pull up my keyboard, and start reading up on CNN and the news I missed.  After 15 minutes, I get back to work, and I do this until I finish my homework.  Breaks allow you to clear the cache of your mind and lets you start anew on your next assignment, leaving you feeling refreshed and ready to take anything on.

And there’s my advice and my tactics on staying on top of what you do, how you do it, and how fast you do it.  I’d also like to hear your tips and trick on how you get things done.  Leave a comment, if you’d like to share, or if you just appreciate my post.  Thanks!

Nike’s statement at HR Tech could redefine our industry (HR Tech Conf Part 1/3)

The Talent Management Panel provided one statement by Nike’s John Schroeder that totally blew me away and made me wonder why in the world the other vendors in the room (with giant development budgets) didn’t jump up and run out to build the next generation of performance management software.  Nike made a point that they should be using the social networking internally in order to manage the relationships and create a global enterprise – not seem so big.   In the grander scale – what better way to be able to track what someone is actually doing, projects they are working on, and their job satisfaction than a social network.  The next generation of employee’s and many of those in the current generation have been brought up around social networking.  The annual 360 performance review will not be the standard in the future.  It isn’t the process that is going to keep a generation of entrepreneurial minded people employed and engaged at your organization.  The single statement made such an impact that I actually pulled out my laptop – wrote a full business plan and designed a new evolution of Performance Management software while I watched the rest of the session.

During the same session Bill Kutik raises the question about social media use.  He says he is “sick to death” of its discussion in recruiting since it is a no brainer, slam dunk to do  – how else are you using social media?

• Jay Smith from Target says to use social networking in Onboarding  to find who is like you, skills like you, etc
• Andy Valenzuela from Dell says to use social networking for project management, mentorship – find/connect w/a mentor in the org, internal updates – tech details etc instead of sending hundreds of emails.  Built in sharepoint environment and includes IM technology to really connect with them – see if they are online, at their desk, etc.

There are a lot of blogs on all the stuff around HR Tech – so I’m going to post on the sessions that really made a big impact on me…more to come…

Managed IT Services

These are especially tough economic times for many small to medium sized businesses.  Small businesses often rely on technology to help their business grow and operate effectively.  Most small and medium sized business can not justify employing full time IT staff. 

Based on several focus groups and meetings we have had with our clients, we have decided to offer a managed services product.  We have demonstrated this product will be a win / win for our clients and Argent Systems.  We can help drop our clients IT cost on average of 3o percent and at the same time improving our problem resolution time.  As a added benefit to Argent we have reduced our own operating costs because in most cases we do not always have to dispatch a tech on-site.  Of course if we do, we promptly dispatch a system engineer. 

Argent Systems’ Small Office Solution provides all of the core network, server, hardware, software, and support management services a small business needs to run smoothly and efficiently. For a single, low monthly fee, your business will have an outsourced, managed IT solution that is secure, reliable, customizable, and most importantly – cost effective. And, as your sole outsourced IT service provider, we proactively manage all aspects of your server and network.   In many cases we will be able to detect and resolve an issue on your servers before you even notice. 

 

Benefits Overview 

• Server Monitoring
• Proactive Problem Resolution
• Unlimited Remote Support
• Monitor Critical Applications
• Data Backup Monitoring and Administration
• Software Updates on PC’s and servers
• Automated Reporting
• 24 x 7 Support
• Remote Resolution
• Application Deployment
• Network Monitoring
• VPN / Firewall Management
• Anti-Virus Monitoring
• Anti-Spyware Monitoring

 

If you would like to find out about a Managed IT solution for your small business please call 561-784-9464 and select option 1 for a consultant.  If you prefer email, please email us at info@argentsys.com.  For information about our other services please visit our web site

Announcing The Ultimate Virus And Spyware Killer PC!

Hello Friends:

It’s been a while since you’ve heard from me.

I hope you’ve missed me as much as I’ve missed not being in communication with you.

In case you’re wondering why I haven’t been in communication, here’s the reason:

About three months ago, you might recall, I told you that I was having issues with my computers.

For several years, I’ve owned a Dell Latitude Desktop that was running Windows Millennium.

I also own a Dell Inspiron laptop computer.

A few weeks ago, I received a message on my desktop computer that the anti-virus software provider I use no longer supports Windows Millennium, and because of all the viruses on the Internet, I could not risk using that computer to browse the Internet.  So that computer has been turned into a glorified hi-fi system, since all I use it for now is to listen to the CDs of the brilliant emerging musicians, like Serotonen, Anthony Melillo and The Melillo Brothers, and Irena Hart, who I’ve been interviewing on Alive with Clive, as well as, I confess, a few others I love.

That left me with my laptop, and as mentioned my laptop has at least one virus that has made it slower than molasses.

That, in turn, put me on a quest to find a solution to my computer woes.

Do I buy another PC and deal with anti-virus software, which doesn’t always work since it failed to prevent my laptop from getting a virus, or do I buy a Mac?  Or, is there an even better alternative hardly any one knows about?

In my quest to find the ultimate computer, through the law of attraction, I was introduced to a man who has created a computer with lots of fabulous features. But the most fabulous feature of all is that it is immune to viruses, and I interviewed him and the public relations director of his company on Alive with Clive.

So impressed was I with what this man and his public relations director had to say about the amazing computer he has invented that I decided to help them tell the world all about it

I thought it would take only a couple of weeks to put the marketing materials together, but as I began to work on the project I realized that if people who own PCs are going to consider buying this computer, they are going to need answers to lots of questions first.

So, over the past twelve weeks, while creating a Web site and accompanying components to offer this computer to the public, I’ve been obtaining answers to each and every single question anyone might think to ask, and have compiled these answers in a document that is now available to anyone who would like to read it.

Now, clearly, you’re probably asking yourself, what makes this computer so unique and amazing, and is it really immune to viruses?  And if it is so amazing, would it be possible for me to get one?  And if I can buy one, will it cost a fortune?

Those are great questions and I commend you for asking them!

The wonderful news for you is that because you receive email from me or are reading this Blog post, you can be one of the first to discover all you want to know about this PC and how to buy one at an incredible bargain if you’d like to do so now before the crowds get to hear about it and create a huge backlog of orders.

But first, I’d like you PLEASE to do me a BIG favor, and if you do I have a SUPER GIFT for you!

You see, we are just getting started rolling out this PC to the public and we would love you to help us create the slogan for this PC.

I’ve created a form for you to fill out.  The form has a few slogans, and what I’d like you to do is grade each slogan on a scale of 1 to 5 based on how much you like each one.  If you like each one a lot, you can give each one a 5, or if you like none of them, you can give them each a 1. When all the submissions are in, I will add up all the scores for each one.  The slogan with the highest score will win.

Here are the slogans you’ll find on the form at the following Web site address:

http://theultimatevirusandspywarekillerpc.com/slogans.htm

1.  The world’s only virus- and spyware-free PC!

2.  With this PC, viruses and spyware are history!

3.  Oh my goodness gracious me, this low-cost PC is a luxury!

4.  It’s not just a PC.  It’s an epiphany!

5.  With this PC, I am worry free!

On the form, there’s also room for you to suggest a slogan or few of your own and leave any comments, thoughts, ideas or suggestions.  Any input or feedback will be very much appreciated.

I’ve also made it possible for you to provide me with the names and email addresses of friends of yours who you think would like to know about the ultimate virus and spyware killer PC and receive the FREE Special Report mentioned below.

Here again is the Web site address for you to grade the slogans and post your thoughts:

http://theultimatevirusandspywarekillerpc.com/slogans.htm

As mentioned above, I have a gift in store for everyone who goes to the above-mentioned Web page,

http://theultimatevirusandspywarekillerpc.com/slogans.htm,

to answer the survey.

After we receive your response, you will receive a FREE Special Report:  “11 Secret Tips To Help You To Save Time And Get More Out Of Your PC NOW!“

And, as promised, since you are still reading this Blog post, if you’d like to be one of the next ten people to buy this PC at an incredible bargain before the crowds begin to create a feeding frenzy for the limited number that will initially be made available, go to the following Web page now:

http://theultimatevirusandspywarekillerpc.com

We’re looking forward to receiving your responses and to giving you the gift:  “11 Secret Tips To Help You To Save Time And Get More Out Of Your PC NOW!“

Again, here’s the link to the slogan survey form:

http://theultimatevirusandspywarekillerpc.com/slogans.htm

Thank you.

P.S. If you happen to take a sneak peak at the Web site, www.theultimatevirusandspywarekillerpc.com, and you have comments or questions about the unique PC described there, or want to recommend ways for me to spruce up the Web site a little or a lot, please feel free to leave your suggestions for me by posting a comment below.  Your comments will be very much appreciated.

P.P.S. Don’t forget, if you want to be one of the next ten people to qualify for “an absolutely killer deal” on the amazing new PC that is immune to viruses and spyware, pay attention to what is stated on the Web site, www.theultimatevirusandspywarekillerpc.com, and take the steps recommended NOW!

Best regards.

Clive

www.theultimatevirusandspywarekillerpc.com