Blip.tv is regarded as “the world’s leading videoblogging and podcasting service,” but it’s their community based ethos and collaborative principles that really persuaded our Ashworth University Student Life team to deveop our own television channel through this incredible company. Blip.tv’s video publishing, sharing, and syndication features make it easy for anyone to get their message heard in the increasingly crowded online video marketplace. We here at Ashworth University would like to thank Blip.tv for their outstanding service. We’d also like to encourage you to check out our Ashworth University Television channel on Blip.tv. If you are a video content creator and would like to work with Ashworth University, please feel free to contact me at the following email address to discuss the possibilities. Thank You!
Thanks to Kit Cowan for permission to use this Photo.
I had to go about shopping for a new KVM switch at my work to replace one that had gone bad. This gave me the idea to write a short blog piece about KVM switches. A KVM switch allows a user to control multiple servers or workstations with a single monitor and mouse/keyboard. In a typical datacenter, each rack of servers will be connected to a KVM switch which has an assigned monitor/mouse/keyboard. Because of KVM switches, organizations don’t have to purchase a monitor and keyboard/mouse set for every single machine. This makes sense since users do not dedicate themselves to a server desktop as they do a workstation.
Each computer is connected to the KVM switch with a special VGA or USB cable. Higher end KVMs allow standard Ethernet cables to connect computers. KVMs usually come in 4, 8 and 16 port versions, meaning that it can accommodate that many machines. When a user wants to access a particular machine, he simply hits an assigned key on the keyboard to view a menu of the computers that are managed by that KVM. He then selects the machine he wishes to view and the monitor then brings it up. Imagine if you were downloading and installing Windows Updates on 8 servers. You could pull up each server at a single monitor and complete the tasks without leaving your chair.
KVM switches are not utilized as much as they have been in the past due to the ease of tools such as Microsoft Remote Desktop which allows one to remote into any windows server at will and pull up the server desktop wherever they are in the world. These remote applications due have one big limitation in that they do not allow a user to view the booting process of the server or access the BIOS as one normally is able to. Unlike a KVM, if you reboot a machine while remoting into it, you lose your connection. Because of this, KVM switches continue to be a valuable tool for networks today.
One of the biggest players in the KVM market is Avocent. Visit their website at www.avocent.com to learn more about their product line and KVMs in general.
Thanks to entropy for permission to use this Photo.
Kaspersky Anti-Virus is one of the most effective anti-virus programs I’ve ever come across. Not only it has good detection rate, it’s light on the system memory too. I was happy to see that Kaspersky has released the free scanner for the users. However, please note that this is just an on-demand scanner and it won’t clean the virus or remove it for you.
Now the question rises that why do you want to use it, when it can’t clean or stop viruses and here’s the answer to this tricky question :Well, I always vouch for having two anti-viruses on a system! (C’mon linux fans, you have a chance to speak) I know that most of the anti-virus firms say that it’s not good to have to anti-virus software but let me make my statement a little bit clear. It’s always good to have one full anti-virus software which runs in real-time, however it’s even better when you have an anti-virus software whose real-time scanning should be disabled and runs as an on-demand scanner. (more…)
Tom Raftery is a technologist based out of Ireland specializing in social media. A friend of the Ashworth community, Tom was one of the first members of our contributing bloggers’ network and has been incredibly gracious in sharing his always insightful perspectives with our students. I’m a frequent reader of Tom’s blog, an Irish award winner by the way, and I thought that his video thoughts on the iPod Touch as Internet Tablet would be of interest to you guys. It’s a brief example of one of Tom’s greatest strengths; the ability to creatively interpret how a technology’s features and capabilities can be maximized. The term “ingenuity” seems appropriate. Click on Tom’s image above to watch this video and spend a few minutes exploring his terrific blog while you’re there. What can I say, he’s the James Joyce of IT!
Another level closer to enlightenment, Steve Jobs unveiled Apple’s latest piece of reverse engineered alien technology today: the MacBook Air. As I watched the video of Steve Jobs taking the “world’s thinnest” notebook out of a manila envelope before presenting it to the audience, like something other than a computer, a pizza maybe, I couldn’t help but laugh on the inside. It was a private laugh, nothing disrespectful of course. Like many other people obsessed with techno-design culture, my respect for Jobs sometimes crosses the line into idolatry. That being said, for a moment today, I felt as if I was watching an alternative ending to Zoolander. What world has this man transcended more? Technology or Fashion? Click on the image above to watch this video. I’m curious to see if you draw a similar parallel. If any members of our student community have already found a way to purchase a MacBook Air, drop in for a minute to share your insights.
Thanks to Andreas Pizsa for permission to use this Photo.
Last year, Microsoft released their most recent version of their popular Exchange email server called appropriately, Exchange 2007. The new upgrade has a number of valuable new tools and methodologies. The two most important facets of this new version is the integration of Unified Messaging and Malware Defense. Unified messaging refers to the aspect of conglomerating various messaging types - email, voicemail and faxes into one unified form. This has been available for several years through other vendors such as Cisco. Exchange 2007 will convert voice mails to email and send faxes directly to designated email boxes. It will also have the ability to integrate another new Microsoft product, Forefront Security to combat malware infections in email communications.
With the plethora of new features inherit in Exchange 2007, most organizations will want to upgrade their old Exchange servers to the latest version. However, there is hidden cost in deploying Exchange 2007. The new version only works on 64-bit architecture (most servers today are 32 bit, the same as your PC). This means that for most customers, the necessary hardware will also have to be purchased as well which adds thousands of dollars to the price. (more…)
Storytelling is one of the most powerful ways of social bonding. New technology enables people to come together online to to create and share stories, art, and other media related to their favorite movies, television shows, and books. In cooperation with media companies, publishers, and sponsors, the biggest social media company in the US, FanLib, also creates special online events where fans can interact with the producers and creators behind some of their favorite books, TV shows, and movies. Those sponsored promotions and contests are used to finance the site. FanLib services are free to the public and their stated goal is to spark creativity — FanLib calls itself the “People Powered Entertainment™ company”.
Cases:
HarperTeen Fanlit
After the success of the first collaborative E-book Reflection Perfection, Harper Collins is now incorporating a teen-focused web strategy in their program. The strategy enables teens to “Create & Share” fiction with Harper Collins authors and their peers, get sneak-peeks of upcoming titles, and get behind-the-scene info. 30,000 teenagers registered for the HarperTeen FanLit online writing contest, contributed, reviewed, and voted on chapters of which six were chosen for the final short story, “Reflection Perfection.” The contest, which is a collaboration with social media company FanLib, generated more than 6 million pageviews on HarperTeen and drew a community of more than 200,000 visitors. The final story is published as a HarperTeen e-book and is free for participants to share with their friends. Prizes included a US$5,000 college scholarship and a Fox TV studios-produced webisode based on the winning entry.
Suave: In The Motherhood
In the Motherhood is the first online video series by moms, for moms and about moms. All stories are based on contributions from real mothers. While professional screenwriters develop the characters and story lines for each of the webisodes, the online mom community votes and nominates the best entries. Sponsored as a multiplatform campaign by Suave and Sprint, In the Motherhood launched on MSN.com, on suave.com, on Sprint TV, as well as on broadcast TV, and features a lively forum of moms who want to share the joys and challenges of being a mom.
Thanks to Van Corey for permission to use this Photo.
Firefox is my favorite browser, when it comes to surfing the web. I support Firefox and suggest everyone to install it (Ok, no need to flame all you opera and IE lovers. Everyone has an opinion and so do I). In the Thank You series, I would like to Thank Mozilla Corp. for providing such a wonderful browser.
Not only it helps me in browsing safely (phishing filters, pop-up blockers, avoids active x based malware), its extensive plug-ins ensure that I can easily browse the web the way I want.
We can make out the popularity of the Firefox just by running a small search on Google Trends and here’s the graph of the Firefox. It’s gaining more and more popularity and capturing the browser market slowly and slowly:
I would also like to Thank all the developers who took their time to develop the plug-ins and as a thank you note here is the list of plug-ins which I use & posting the links to their reviews :
1. Adsense Notifier : A great plugin which keeps track of your Adsense income and lets you see if any stupid activity is going on with your Adsense account.
2. Answers : This plugin tells you about the specific word when you left click on any word with ALT button pressed. The list in the link has some other cool Firefox plugins too.
3. ChatZilla : This plugin ensures that you can make use of IRC to its fullest and that too for free. There are other software which lets you access IRC but they are no where close to this plugin and its simplicity.
4. Colorzilla : This plugin is really useful for all the web developers as it lets you chose the color values with the click of a button. (more…)
I have been very quiet on this blog for the last few weeks - apologies for that but I can’t promise on the pace returning to the two or three posts a day I was averaging at times last year. Why?
I have been spending a lot of time on the micro-blogging site, Twitter. Twitter is a site where you have a maximum of 140 characters per post but instead of a traditional blog site, these posts are typically conversational. Because of the immediacy of writing 140 characters, reading and responding to ‘Tweets’ is relatively trivial and so conversations are born.
Marshall Kirkpatrick wrote a great article last year explaining how Twitter is now paying his rent. And because of the still early nature of the application, it is possible to very quickly build up a powerful network of highly influential users who are only too happy to converse with you. I have met several people recently who, up until now I only knew through Twitter. Another way I use Twitter is I often pose questions to Twitter and get great replies back from highly qualified people in minutes.
Twitter has an open API so it is possible to use third party applications to post to and read from Twitter.
Apple released their newly redesigned iPod Nano back in September, and sales for this MP3 were a bit slow at first but have begun to turn around during the holiday season. The Apple iPod Nano is now one of the top selling tech gadgets this holiday season. Back in September, some Apple stores reported initial sales of only 200-500 of the new iPod Nanos of their initial stock of 1800-2500 units (source: AppleInsider). Apple executives were puzzled about the slow sales of the Nano which has gotten favorable reviews from just all of the technology reviewers.
Sales have greatly increased for the Nano during the holiday season, which Apple executives attribute to a recent strong interest in Apple products by consumers, such as the iMac and Mac OS X Leopard, and also because of Apple’s strong partnerships with retailers like Best Buy (source: AppleInsider). Supply for the Apple iPod Nano are now running low, as this third generation MP3 player becomes more and more popular amongst consumers.
New Design of iPod Nano
The look of the third generation iPod Nano has gotten an extreme makeover. The new Nano still has the same click-wheel that has been so popular with iPods, but it’s a quarter of an inch smaller than the previous Nano’s click-wheel. This is probably because of the smaller body of the third generation Nano compared with its predecessor’s which was much taller and skinnier.
Apple iPod Nano comparison (3rd generation model on the left)
Subscribe to Feed
