A backup ISP for Dakota State University

Researching for  my final projfect I came across several IT solutions for providing schools with the internet.  A popular choice for smaller private schools would be a business line.

http://schoolcomputing.wikia.com/wiki/Internet_Connection_Options

Also the popularity of redundant ISP lines is on the rise both in the education and business sectors.  A web site like Amazon going offline would cost the company over  $100,000′s every hour it is offline.   The effect on a school like DSU would not be so great, but I think we can all remember when our school internet has crawled to a halt and how dramatic that effect had on us.  Perhaps DSU should look into getting alternet ISP lines.  We continually as especially as most of us are savvy and heavy internet users we use our link for everything from music to video entertainment.  Our appetite for bandwidth has grown extremely large, so maybe a backup line would be unrealistic.  It is food for thought for the future, when you open your own business, instead of one big tube, think about getting several smaller ones in case some ISP connections are unreliable.  There is something to be said for redundancy in telecommunications.

Web spreads throughout developing countries profitless

According to the New York Times the web is rapidly growing in many developing countries. And while this sounds good, if you are a fan of globalization, the problem is that it is profitless, or nearly profitless. The cost to broadcast to these areas is high and there are very low results from advertisements and other sales attempts. Web companies are contemplating what to do and some have even blocked traffic to these areas. The Internet has always been thought of this wonder that connects the world but now even the idealists are seeing that this is tougher than originally thought. It seems like someone is going to have to develop some infrastructure in this country almost as a charity so that the ideas of these countries can be seen. I highly doubt these countries will just be isolated from the rest of the world.

THE ARTICLE

Eco-Monitor

The green revolution is hitting our monitors with the new Eizo monitors with “EcoView Sense”.  These new monitors bring a few nice green features that I think could also be used in home televisions. 

The monitors have a motion detector that automatically shut off the monitor  if there is no movement in front of it for over 40 seconds.  I’m hoping that is an adjustable timeframe.  Eizo also offers ambient light sensors that adjust the displays brightness according to the lighting in the room.  They finish off a trio of energy savings by including a power switch that actually turns off the monitor completely, stopping all power from being drawn to it. 

I’m not usually a ‘green’ seeker, but I like these enhancements because I feel they could be used in many of our other appliances such as Televisions, radios, DVD players, and many others. 

Thanks,

-Andrew

E-Health’s Heavy Burden

President Bush dictated that by 2014 all health systems would require electronic medical records.  A three-physician practice might have to spend $50,000 to $80,000, and then still have to pay for back-office support and IT. Unfortunately, years ago the standards were not set out for the healthcare industry. CCHIT (the Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technology) was formed to certifiy electronic medical record systems. With the standards being set, more companies will be able to join in the healthcare industry creating medical record systems.

http://www.forbes.com/2009/04/17/health-care-internet-technology-cio-network-health-care.html

Verizon iPhone Could be Here Next Year

This little ditty caught my attention right away and the weeks posts just aren’t complete without an iPhone post now is it?

UK Phone Service Embraces Skype

In a tricky move,  3 , a United Kingdom 3g phone service, has started to sell $3 Sim cards for phones on their plans, allowing them to contact, IM, and Skype to Skype call for free on thier smart phones. This is an interesting move, because many phone companies see skype as moving in on Cellphone territory.  Apple had to fight to get Skype on the iPhone and allow for free Skype to Skype calling. 3 UK made the decision to allow Skype on thier phones as the users would have to have a 3 UK data plan as opposed to the regular plans. They were seeing the increase in data plan sales as opposed to the individual call sales.   

File it? Or Pile it?

“To pile, or not to pile?” That is the question.

As the semester is nearing an end, I find myself with less time to stay organized. My desk often becomes cluttered with open books and scattered papers. When I switch between projects, perhaps to go back to work on my CIS 427 Final Paper, I quickly stack up everything that is on my desk and set it in the corner, crumpling up any papers that I don’t think I will need again. Out of sight, out of mind.  I don’t like to waste time putting items away in there “proper” place. I just want to get to work. Besides, I’m eventually going to get back to them.

Well imagine that with your computer interface.  In Business Week’s “BumpTop: Thinking Outside the Desktop”, Stephen Wildstrom considers whether there are different possibilities for the computer interface, like BumpTop’s alternative Windows desktop.

Microsoft posts first decline; Netbooks to blame?

Microsoft’s sales in the third-quarter of last year were at totaled $14.45 billion. On Thursday, Microsoft announced that their third-quarter sales for this year were down to $13.65 billion. It is the first time Microsoft posted a year-to-year decline in sales.

One of the big hits that Microsoft took: Netbooks. While Microsoft has stayed on the ball developing Netbooks so other makers aren’t left competitor’s edge on them, the price on Netbooks is substantially less than those Microsoft normally see on its PC sales. So as PC sales decrease and Netbook sales increase, Microsoft is finding itself raking in less.

The E-Book

Article

I’m a big fan of Amazon.com and I never really grasped the concept of the e-book until I read through this article. The author talks about purchasing and downloading two novels before breakfast and finishing the first chapter of one by the time he was done. E-books are kind of expensive, Amazon.com sells the latest generation, “The Kindle 2″ for $359. What this does is change the way we read. While I was in Iraq for 16 months I read somewhere around 100 different books from all sorts of different genre’s but my problem was which books to keep and which ones to get rid of. In my basement I have a big storage shelf with 30 or 40 books on that I have read over the years that I can’t seem to get rid of because I like them that much.With an E-book I can still have those books at my fingertips without taking up so much space on the shelves.

Go Green for Earth Day

Ok, so I know I am a day late for my Earth Day post, but here it goes.  I found this article on CNET and lists some interesting downloads for cutting back on energy uses for your computer.  I thought this article related to the previous post about how often we shut down our computers. The article highlights downloads for Windows users looking to save some energy. The Auto Shutdown program schedules automatic shut-downs for you.  So why not check out some ways to save some computing energy in honor of Earth Day!

link to article