Technology Area

Archive for April, 2011

Cloud computing is changing the way that individuals and entire businesses accomplish tasks every day. With only an internet connection and a web browser, a person can log on from any computer or web-enabled device in any location and access stored data, check e-mail, store and manage passwords, and collaborate on documents with co-workers in other locations. These are just a few examples of how cloud computing has given people the freedom to work from virtually anywhere. If you consider your own internet usage, chances are that you’ll realize you already use cloud computing on a regular basis.

What Equipment Does Cloud Computing Require?

Historically, if you wanted to use a program to, say, manage your finances or edit your photos, you had to purchase software and install it on your computer. And if you wanted to use the software, you had to use that exact device. Now, instead of purchasing and installing expensive hardware and software, users of cloud-based solutions use internet connections to link into applications powered by a provider’s network of servers. By visiting a service’s or application’s website, registering and perhaps paying to subscribe, users can then log in from any desktop computer, laptop, smartphone, tablet device or several other devices using your user name and password. Read the rest of this entry »

Every year, a lot of household and commercial electronic and electrical equipment are improperly disposed of in landfills. Improper disposal of electronic wastes are detrimental to the environment and also impact the health condition of the community. Some electronic wastes have components or parts that contain mercury, lead, cadmium, and other hazardous elements. Over a period of time, these equipments, that have been accumulating in the landfill, break down and release these dangerous substances in the soil and water.

Electronic and electrical equipment are necessities in the home and workplace. Although these items are valued for their specific purpose, they are easily ditched for new and upgraded models once obsolete. To ensure that these items are properly disposed of, supportive environmental legislation had been enacted to provide regulations and rules for compliance.

About the WEEE Directive

The overall aim of the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directive is to encourage the recovery, reuse and recycling of electrical and electronic equipment by requiring manufacturers to take responsibility in recycling their products. WEEE recycling requires compliance not only from product manufacturers but also importers, retailers, sellers and businesses with equipment to dispose.

The directive supports the Read the rest of this entry »

Many Dental offices consider themselves to be “digital” offices. They have incorporated computers at the front desk and in the treatment rooms and have software that manages their practice and electronic images – both camera and radiographic. The dentists with such offices have invested time and money;and, often times, have endured a good amount of frustration to get there. Unfortunately, many high-tech offices are under utilizing their systems and only deriving a fraction of the benefit that could be garnered with the correct vision of utilization and proper training to achieve it.

If over a period of time an office spends roughly five dollars per patient to be high tech ,the return on investment should yield more than five dollars per patient to be considered a sound investment. What is the difference between practices that generate $5 per patient and barely cover their cost and those that see $25 revenue gains per patient and consider technology a “game changer” for their practice? The difference can be summed up in two words Vision and Execution.

Turning Vision and Execution into profit

The offices that are seeing the highest returns on investment from their technology, had a vision of increased efficiency and effectiveness in mind when they embarked on the path to becoming high tech. That general vision translated to a more specific vision of what being “high tech” would mean to their day to day operations. The “flow” of information was discussed with the staff so they understood their roles in implementing the technology to make it a success. Also, the specific efficiencies gained were conveyed to the staff in relation to their daily duties (e.g. “Mary, Read the rest of this entry »

So, ‘cloud’ is the answer to all our business dreams or at least that’s what the technology press, integrators, small business journals, the world, his wife and their dog are telling us, but is that really the case? Well I think the answer to that question is ‘yes’ and ‘no’…

So what is the true benefit of cloud? In short, low capital expenditure, quick time to implementation, flexible terms and no tie in to long contracts, all of which makes ‘cloud’ a great option for small to medium (and larger) sized businesses. Pre-cloud, technology had to be a tangible asset, a box or boxes that sat in a room and hummed and created heat. Not only was it something that you could touch and feel, you had to feed it on a regular basis with patches, updates and general prodding along and unless you had a technology minded employee, you could only achieve this by outsourcing this responsibility to an integrator that understood ‘the beast’. Read the rest of this entry »

Over Recent years most businesses have progressed somewhat significantly when it comes to their expectations from IT, which is a good thing. Perception is normally King and there are really only a couple of ways the business can monitor performance of IT, and certainly one of those is through Reporting and establishing effective Service Level Agreements (SLA’s).

When it comes to standard SLA Reporting, most Service Management toolsets are more than capable of providing what I refer to a ’standard’ Service Level Reporting eg: Number of incidents/changes raised, resolved, closed etc. Out of the box features can normally cater to your specific requirements using the operational data loaded within the tool with a minimal amount of effort. It’s when the business starts to ask for end to end performance reporting on a service that a totally new level of thinking and solution is required.

ITIL® describes a Service as ‘A Read the rest of this entry »

There are numerous component issues experienced by PC users every day. You might have previously experienced a few of them. If the issue relates to sound card or CPU, this post could possibly offer you ideas how to troubleshoot these types of issues.

Audio card issues are extremely typical. If you discover out some day that a computer system produces no audio when you make a recording, tune in to tunes or watch movies, there has to be some issues with the computer audio card. Normally, most audio cards are inexpensive but for anyone who is an audiophile who’s meticulous with the audio quality, then it could be a bit tough to replace your high priced audio card.

In order to troubleshoot audio card issues, the very first simple move to make is, obviously, examine the speaker wires to determine if they are linked and plugged on the right places at the audio card. Also, check the power wires of the speakers to determine if the power supply is okay.

Next, verify the windows volume. Read the rest of this entry »