Technology - USB, Cardbus, PCMCIA, Express Card and More

Gone are the days of needing to purchase hundreds of floppy disks or costly external hard drives to backup your files.  In fact, many companies now offer computer backup packages that are not only inexpensive, but require no storage of anything extra on your side.  Online backup is the preferred method of many Fortune 500 companies and is now an option for small businesses and personal use.  Once the backup schedule is set on your computer you don’t have to worry about regularly backing up your information because it is all done for you.  Your data is important.  Protect it.        

What would your feedback report say if it allowed your peers, supervisors, reporting staff members, co-workers and customers to evaluate your work? Would it match your personal evaluation? No need to wonder, perhaps your current employer is already using the online 360 degree feedback surveys as a way to identify strengths, weaknesses and areas where professional development is needed for each of their employees. So, not only will your employer get an idea of how you view your own work ethic, but he’ll also get imput from everyone you interact with. It might just persuade you to be a little kinder to your coworker and a little more helpful to those customers who aren’t so eager to be polite.

Recently we added the Trackstick and the Trackstick Pro to our store.  These are really cool products, basically allowing you to track wherever you’ve been.  They log destinations using GPS, and then you go plug it into your computer, use it with Google Maps, and see a red line where you’ve been.  It even logs other info like how fast you were going.

The question is whether or not some applications for this product are ethical.  For instance, I’ve heard of people using this device to track their employees.  If it is a company car and the employees are supposed to be running strictly business related errands then I can see why an employer would need to monitor if the employee is staying on task and not wasting gas.  In fact, many companies and organizations use the Trackstick to figure out routes to increase response time (like paramedics) or to stretch out their gas budget.

I’ve had a friend however whose parents put a GPS tracker in her car without her knowing about it.  And I know this girl, she doesn’t have a history of getting in any real trouble.   She just has parents that are super paranoid about everything.  I’m of the opinion that this should only be done when you are pretty sure your teen is a reckless driver, gets drunk, or both.  What do you think?

Looking for a good guide to HDMI? Learn HDMI has a new HDMI FAQ to get you up to speed on this revolutionary technology which has become the standard for HDTV’s. I never realized why people say that expensive cables aren’t any better than the cheap ones - the guide talks about how HDMI is an all-or-nothing signal, so it is either displayed near perfect, or the screen flickers or doesn’t come on.

With so many technological advancements and awe-inspiring gadgets, many people have forgotten the basic necessities–one of which is backup software. As stupid as it sounds, people just don’t seem to think about it anymore until they lose everything on their hard drives. So my word of advice is get what you NEED before you get the next best thing that just barely made its debut on the market.

Life happens.  It’s unpredictable.  This is even more true in the world of technology.   Take the massive atom-smasher they’re building on the border of Switzerland and France, for example.  Called the LHC, or Large Hadron Collider, this particle accelerator is designed to smash protons down into even smaller particles, some of which could potentially create a microscopic black hole which would consume the earth.  No, seriously.  They’re actually being sued by physicists in Hawaii because they might destroy the world as we know it.

While slightly less disastrous, losing your Wi-Fi signal can still ruin your day.  Knowing this, companies are getting smarter.  Kyocera, for example, has recently released the KR2, the swiss-army knife of broadband routers.  Not only does the KR2 send out signal from an ethernet cable, it can also be connected to an EVDO or WAN network, and will automatically switch to the other if one fails.  Pumping out a beefy 802.11n signal, the KR2 is a great SOHO solution, taking the worry about losing your wireless signal out of your life.  Now you have more time to figure out what you’re going to do when strangelets reduce the world to a glowing lump of matter.

We were taught countless times to share when we were children, so I bet many of you have been wanting to share your 3G signal with your friends.  Well, if you haven’t thought of it in the past, I bet you are now.  A handy mobile broadband router would do just the trick.

These devices simply accept whatever card or dongle your service provider (like Sprint or Verizon) gave you gave you, and translate that 3G signal into a standard wifi signal that anyone can share as long as their laptop or device works on 802.11 wireless networks.  You can have your own traveling internet hotspot and share your 3G signal with anyone you want.

Wholesale drop shipping is often touted for its simplicity and efficiency but what are the real advantages to using a drop ship service (such as DropShip Design) for an online retail business?

Reduced Overhead
Brick and mortar costs for retailers can be outrageous - many retailers do not (and cannot) break even unless they are operating on a large enough scale to do so. Then add in shipping and packaging costs to send individual items and overhead expenses are far more than you can afford. Drop shipping reduces overhead.

No Inventory Costs
Drop shipping is based on a model where the retailer does not order from the wholesaler until a customer has actually ordered (and paid for) an item. This eliminates the need for inventory investments and enables retailers to test how well new products will sell without having to actually purchase inventory.

Concentrated Time, Efforts, and Money
The time that would be spent receiving and organizing inventory, printing and labeling, and packing and shipping orders can now be focused somewhere else. It saves time and money so you can focus your efforts and funds on areas where you will get the most bang for your buck, such as improved customer service and marketing your website.

No Minimums
You can order as many or few wholesale items as you want, since you do not place on order with the wholesaler until payment has been received from a customer.

Bigger Product Choice
Not only do you have more products to choose from, but you can sell products that you wouldn’t have been able to otherwise; without size, space, and shipping restrictions, you can sell bulky items such as furniture.

One major problem with bigger businesses is that they don’t really care what their employees or customers really think–just as long as the employees get their work done and the customers keep buying from them. One newer way for companies to get some feedback from both their employees and customers is through enterprise feedback management software. Through this software, companies can be abreast of concerns before they turn into a huge fiasco. More companies should implement enterprise feedback management software in order to keep their business running smoother.

With the price of copper on the rise, network cables are getting progressively more expensive.  There are a lot of choices of types of network cable too.  Do you get Cat5? Cat5e (”e” for “enhanced”)? Cat6?  Plenum rated?  Shielded?

Well, I’m going to give you advice assuming you don’t live directly under too many power lines.  Cat5e is probably the most cost efficient way to go if you think there’s at least the possibility of upgrading to gigabit speeds.  Cat5 without the “e” won’t support above megabit speeds, and Cat6 will but is much more expensive. If you are using video baluns (Video Extenders), however, Cat6 is sometimes a good idea.  Unless you live in a place with a lot of electro magnetic interference, like near a transformer grid, you probably won’t need shielding.

Since wiring an entire house will get expensive, I’d also suggest getting bulk cat5e cable.  You’ll probably have to learn to crimp your own cables, but you’ll probably save hundreds of dollars.