Computer Support Blog

The Internet may well be the last frontier in the United States, if not the world.  After all, the Internet has almost singlehandedly made the word “pioneer” relevant again.  Much of the pioneering spirit embodied by the Internet comes in the form of trailblazers who simply took something tedious in the real world and made it simple, cool, or relevant, in the digital universe of the Internet.  Sheila Krumholz is one such Internet pioneer.

Sheila Krumholz is the Executive Director of the Center for Responsive Politics, a non-partisan political watchdog organization.  Krumholz is responsible for transforming the tedious Open Secrets book of records to OpenSecrets.org, one of the most flexible, insightful and accurate political websites on the Internet.  OpenSecrets.org is, by and large, an online database of campaign contribution records for every United States Federal election from 1990 until now!

At the University of Minnesota, Krumholz studied international relations and political science.  What seemed to interest her most, however, was the strong relationship between money and politics.  While studying politics, she began researching.  This research took her to Washington, D.C. where she rapidly immersed herself in the filing cabinets of Congress.  Hired by the Center for Responsive Politics, she poured through every campaign finance record she could find to trace exactly what corporations were influencing each politician at the national level.  Krumholz would probably still be digging away in dusty basements had she not developed OpenSecrets.org.

As the scale of presidential and congressional elections in the United States became financially unwieldy, Krumholz saw a potential niche on the Internet that was missing.  She saw that the Internet was giving everyone who had a political opinion a chance to raise their voice, but that there was a severe shortage of facts and archives for retrieving facts on campaign finance.  Krumholz led the team that made the vast database of Federal Election Commission donation records available to anyone who was connected to the Internet.  She conceived of OpenSecrets.org as a resource for all citizens. Krumholz wanted to make the site into more than just a simple page about the Center for Responsive Politics.  With her vision, that is what the site became!

Krumholz is a patriot as much as she is a pioneer.  Serving now as the Executive Director of the Center for Responsive Politics, her role is much less technical than it was for the years while she was helping to develop the award-winning website.  While she remains deeply interested in the statistical analysis tools OpenSecrets.org continues to develop, her day to day concerns involve fighting for campaign finance reform.  An expert on the subject, Krumholz and the Center for Responsive Politics are exceptionally careful to not endorse any specific plan for campaign finance reform while continually educating citizens and politicians on the inarguable links between campaign donations and political actions in Washington.

Sheila Krumholz effectively blazed a trail using the freedom the Internet provides to help educate every United States citizen on the inner workings of the federal government!

About RESCUECOM:

RESCUECOM provides computer repair and computer support, 24/7: Meeting every tech support need including data recovery, virus removal, networking, wireless services, and computer support for all brands of hardware and software. For computer support or information on products, services, or computer repair, visit https://www.rescuecom.com or call 1-800-RESCUE-PC.

For More Information, Contact:

David Milman, CEO

315-882-1100

david@rescuecom.com

Despite its faults with repeatedly recommending the same hundred people to be your friend, Facebook remains a very cool social network.  Facebook is a social network where you can communicate with friends far and near and even people you just wish were your friends, all at once.  The social network that Mark Zuckerberg founded on the concept of exclusivity is now a universally-recognized facet of United States popular culture.  One of the nice elements of Facebook is that it serves as a platform for applications that do not take Facebook all that seriously.  Two of the coolest such applications are Face-Invaders and the Photo Booth Friends video slot machine.

Face-Invaders is a very simple application for Facebook.  The Face-Invaders game is a recreation of the classic 1980s video game Space Invaders.  The difference, though, is that instead of generic aliens, the creatures descending from the sky are made up of Facebook photos of your Facebook friends!  You use your own Facebook photo in Face-Invaders as the defensive weapon to save the world.

The game is very simple to play, just as Space Invaders was.  As your friends float down from the sky, you shoot them until the rows of friends are all gone.  Moving your avatar is easy, as you simply tilt your tablet computer or smartphone in the direction you want to go. To fire your weapon, you simply tap your portable device’s screen.  Face-Invaders can be a nice cathartic tool when people you are friends with on Facebook have annoyed you in real life!

For a more positive spin on using your Facebook friends’ photos, the DoubleDown Casino application on Facebook has Photo Booth Friends.  Photo Booth Friends is a standard video slot machine on Facebook, except that all of the symbols are profile photos from your Facebook friends.  Photo Booth Friends is a cool application in that you may let the program choose which friends it represents in the game or you may associate specific friends with different winning values.  Suddenly, your loved one may help you win big at the virtual casino!

Photo Booth Friends is otherwise a very typical video slot machine on the DoubleDown Casino platform.  Photo Booth Friends is a twenty-line video slot machine with eleven different symbols, including Bonus Game and Scatter symbols.  The bonus game for Photo Booth Friends is the aptly-named “snapshot bonus” that makes further use out of your friends’ Facebook photos.

Facebook profile photos can be fun or troubling, but with applications like Face-Invaders and Photo Booth Friends, you can see a lot more of your friends while gaming on Facebook!

About RESCUECOM:

RESCUECOM provides computer repair and computer support, 24/7: Meeting every tech support need including data recovery, virus removal, networking, wireless services, and computer support for all brands of hardware and software. For computer support or information on products, services, or computer repair, visit https://www.rescuecom.com or call 1-800-RESCUE-PC.

For More Information, Contact:

David Milman, CEO

315-882-1100

david@rescuecom.com

The relationship between art and commerce has only been made more complicated by the rise of the Internet.  On the one hand, artists now are able to present their works to a vastly broader audience and entire sites like Art.net have sprouted up to use the Internet to promote art in all of its forms.  On the flip side, with so many more people exploring and presenting artwork, the market has been flooded and many artist sites are choking with starving artists, none of whom are buying.  As well, the lack of real safeguards for images and representations of artwork on the Internet makes it much more difficult to protect the intellectual property of artists.  One artist who has effectively blended artwork and emerging Internet technologies is Tom Gerhardt.

Tom Gerhardt is one of the two co-founders of Studio Neat.  Studio Neat has a stated goal of designing simple accessories for popular technologies.  Lacking a corporate model or drive, Gerhardt is much more concerned with the artistic aspects of the products he designs.  Gerhardt is an idea man who makes interesting functional gadgets, but he does not prioritize selling them, which might be why you have not heard of Studio Neat.

Tom Gerhardt is a world-renowned artist, first and foremost.  Gerhardt pioneered the ring technology that makes the stone mouse work, which is very cool.  In addition to appreciating a strong sense of simplicity in design, Gerhardt is known for having a sense of whimsy.  One would have to be whimsical to design a mud-based interface for computers.  Yes, Gerhardt is spearheading the MudTub, a computer interface that works by having a computer user play in mud.  The MudTub might be for a niche audience of people who want to move around in wet dirt, but the fact that someone had the idea to manipulate computer devices using playing in mud is a remarkably clever one.

Gerhardt and his partner at Studio Neat, Dan Provost, recently designed the Glif.  The Glif is a mount and stand for use with the Apple iPhone 4 and 4S and Gerhardt appealed to Apple fans online to actually fund its production.  The Glif is a very simple black mount with a threaded screw hole that allows you to attach your Apple iPhone 4 to any standard camera mount!  The simplicity of the idea is incredible; Apple promoted the iPhone 4 on its photographic abilities without ever producing a device that would allow it to be attached to other, existing digital camera accessories!  Gerhardt saw the need and created an inexpensive, simple device that met the need in a stylish way.

With creations like the stone mouse, Glif, and MudTub under his belt or in development, artist Tom Gerhardt is someone to watch for the next great fusion of art and technology!

About RESCUECOM:

RESCUECOM provides computer repair and computer support, 24/7: Meeting every tech support need including data recovery, virus removal, networking, wireless services, and computer support for all brands of hardware and software. For computer support or information on products, services, or computer repair, visit https://www.rescuecom.com or call 1-800-RESCUE-PC.

For More Information, Contact:

David Milman, CEO

315-882-1100

david@rescuecom.com

If you own a Saturn automobile, you know just how terrible it can be when a company goes belly up without ever releasing their proprietary information to the general public or others within their industry.  Those who still drive their beloved Saturn cars are discovering that as problems arise, especially with the Saturn’s onboard computer, they are completely at the mercy of GM.  General Motors, which owned Saturn, may very well charge more than your local mechanic, but your local mechanic cannot access a Saturn’s onboard computer.  The reason for that is simple: before Saturn went bust, the company held very tightly to its trade secrets and the Saturn onboard computer program remained a protected property.  GM, as the parent company of Saturn, retained the coding and now uses it to compel the remaining Saturn owners to use their service centers.  Hewlett-Packard is taking the exact opposite approach with their webOS.  By making webOS into an open source program, anyone with computer programming ability will be able to acquire, alter and write applications for webOS.

HP had a pretty bad 2011 on the tablet computer front.  After having their tablet computer, the Touchpad, crushed by the sales numbers of the Apple iPad 2, the Kindle Fire arrived to metaphorically bulldoze a small mountain of dirt into the grave.  Hewlett-Packard gave the tablet computer market the old college try and the company lost obscene amounts of money in the process.  HP liquidated the last of the Touchpads for $100 and $149 when the Touchpads bore a $500 and $600 MSRP earlier in the year.  HP had a bad year on the tablet computer front.

So, HP announced they were no longer competing for that market.  In washing their hands of the tablet computer market, HP could have divorced itself from the customers who had invested in their product and moved on to their next big project.  Instead, HP executives announced that webOS, the operating system that runs the Touchpad tablet computer, would be released as open source software.

By making webOS open source, computer programmers may write applications of their own for their Touchpads.  They can use webOS to run other hardware, like smartphones, digital cameras or gaming devices.  If you become annoyed with how your electronic device is operating, you could write an app in webOS to reprogram it!

In addition to being consumer-friendly, making webOS into open source software, HP is giving a psychological pat on the back to its programmers.  Because the enthusiasm exists for webOS, in spite of poor Touchpad sales, HP is essentially telling its programmers and researchers, “You had a good product; it just didn’t sell.”  That kind of encouragement is remarkably cool from a multibillion dollar company.

About RESCUECOM:

RESCUECOM provides computer repair and computer support, 24/7: Meeting every tech support need including data recovery, virus removal, networking, wireless services, and computer support for all brands of hardware and software. For computer support or information on products, services, or computer repair, visit https://www.rescuecom.com or call 1-800-RESCUE-PC.

For More Information, Contact:

David Milman, CEO

315-882-1100

david@rescuecom.com

The very popular film The Social Network chronicled the rise of Facebook, but because the movie is concerned with the origins of Facebook, many people associated with the company were not featured in the film.  One notable person who joined the Facebook family well after the events depicted in The Social Network was Otilia Otlacan.

Otilia Otlacan worked for Facebook for one year at Facebook’s Dublin offices.  As an Advertising Operations Associate, Otlacan was intimately involved with effectively branding Facebook for the UK marketplace.  Equally important, Otlacan was responsible for positioning brands like Kellogg’s, Sony, Visa and Chevrolet on Facebook in Europe.  At a time of financial instability worldwide, Otilia Otlacan was developing and executing advertising campaigns on Facebook for some of the world’s biggest companies!  As an Advertising Operations Associate, Otlacan ran advertising campaigns for Facebook that impacted markets in twenty-five counties and fifteen different languages!

How did Otilia Otlacan become such an advertising powerhouse when she only received her Master’s degree in marketing in 2003 (at age twenty-six!)?  Otlacan is a very talented professional, who seemed destined for success when she first received her certification as a Programming Languages Analyst from the Romanian Ministry Of Education.  From there, she focused her attentions on marketing throughout Europe.  For a few years, she worked for local computer and marketing companies in Romania, Athens and Dublin.

Her big break came when Google discovered Otilia Otlacan.  In 2006, Otlacan became an Advertising Account Associate for Google in Dublin.  There, she was responsible for creating the Google AdSense market for the UK.  Primarily responsible for promoting Google AdSense across the countries in Europe that had not been exposed to – or successfully integrated – Google Ads, Otlacan made Google advertisements a powerful tool for many European businesses.  Her success with Google made her very attractive to other businesses in Europe that saw how successful she was with promoting the Google advertising platform in the UK.  Otlacan left Google to help smaller companies like muzu.tv and Jolt Online Gaming improve their revenue streams through more effective advertising.  She was so effective as Jolt’s Online Marketing Manager that Facebook wooed her when they needed an Advertising Operations Associate in Dublin!

Now, Otilia Otlacan is a marketing manager for Innova Systems & Technologies and she runs her own business.  In 2008, Otlacan and Andrea Franco formed RightFit Media, which they run together.  RightFit Media is a consulting firm that helps companies effectively advertise on the Internet.  Otlacan also runs a very popular blog on online advertising, sharing her expertise with the world!

Otilia Otlacan is smart, stylish and has experience sought after by multi-billion dollar companies like Facebook and Google; but now that she is striking out on her own, her experience can help your company, too!

About RESCUECOM:

RESCUECOM provides computer repair and computer support, 24/7: Meeting every tech support need including data recovery, virus removal, networking, wireless services, and computer support for all brands of hardware and software. For computer support or information on products, services, or computer repair, visit https://www.rescuecom.com or call 1-800-RESCUE-PC.

For More Information, Contact:

David Milman, CEO

315-882-1100

david@rescuecom.com

Today, Wikipedia is dark in the United States.  While Wikipedia users have been subject to pleas for money and frequently unsupported articles, this is the first time Wikipedia has ever made an overtly political move.  Wikipedia is the highest profile Internet site participating in the online protest against SOPA.  Yesterday, Alexa had Wikipedia rated as the sixth most popular website in the world.  Participation in the Internet protest against SOPA is elevated by Wikipedia’s participation.

Bravo to Wikipedia!

For those unfamiliar with the issue, the Stop Online Piracy Act is a bill the United States Senate is currently debating.  It is the Senate equivalent of the House’s Protect IP Act.  The stated goal of SOPA is to protect the intellectual property of those who use the Internet for advertising and media distribution.  Critics of SOPA and PIPA argue that the methods written into the bills range from dramatic overkill – the ability for the United States Federal Government to seize servers that pirated materials pass through – to utterly ineffective, i.e. the attempt for the U.S. to moderate a worldwide network like the Internet.  Even many of SOPA and PIPAs supporters are queasy or unclear about what the law, if executed, would actually mean for Freedom Of Speech.

Wikipedia is obstructing all access to its site today as part of a protest against SOPA and PIPA.  The metaphor is an apt one and the educational potential is incredible.  Of course, Wikipedia’s blacking out the site is meant to illustrate that should Congress pass SOPA, sites like Wikipedia could be shut down abruptly and with much less respect than the protest did (users were notified over a day in advance that Wikipedia would be participating).  For those not hip to the issue, visiting Wikipedia today and discovering it dark affords Wikipedia the unparalleled ability to educate its users.  By providing users with information as to what SOPA proposes Wikipedia might just wake up the sleeping giant that is the American electorate.

While some might argue that it is inappropriate for Wikipedia to stage such a protest, the Wikimedia Foundation’s statement on the subject is remarkably articulate.  There, the site’s controlling board point out that, making SOPA into law would dramatically impact Wikipedia and that, because the site is not beholden to stockholders, they ought to raise their voice.  With ironclad logic like that it seems particularly cowardly that Facebook, the #2 site on the Internet, did not participate as well.  As a haven for even the most banal free speech, the passage of SOPA would certainly affect Facebook as well.

At this point, SOPA is virtually dead in the Senate and President Obama has done everything but explicitly state that he will veto SOPA should it reach his desk.  Too often, though, we look at history and wonder why people did not speak up while sweeping changes robbed citizens of their lives, liberties or property.  Today, Wikipedia stands up and the Internet is better for it.

About RESCUECOM:

RESCUECOM provides computer repair and computer support, 24/7: Meeting every tech support need including data recovery, virus removal, networking, wireless services, and computer support for all brands of hardware and software. For computer support or information on products, services, or computer repair, visit https://www.rescuecom.com or call 1-800-RESCUE-PC.

For More Information, Contact:

David Milman, CEO

315-882-1100

david@rescuecom.com

With the holidays behind us and the new year nicely underway, many of us are looking for a way to take off the holiday pounds.  Technology exists to aid you in weight loss.  There are specialized computer devices that help you count calories as well as smartphone applications designed to help you plan your diet and exercise regimen.  Arguably the best is Calorie Count.

Calorie Count is a comprehensive website that helps you to lose weight in a healthy fashion.  The site functions as an informative tool, an online journal and a social network.  The three primary functions of the site come together for the user to provide a powerful weight loss tool that offers you the best chance for a healthier lifestyle.  Calorie Count helps users lose weight by keeping you focused on your specific weight loss goals while rewarding your accomplishments.

The informative nature of Calorie Count is unparalleled on the Internet.  Calorie Count offers you over 231,000 foods with their entire nutritional breakdown so you may see the exact impact of every food you eat.  The truly valuable aspect of Calorie Count’s extensive database of nutritional information is that it allows you to log and chart each day along every possible vector.  In simpler terms, the Calorie Count tool allows you research every meal, drink and snack you want to put into your body and the program provides you with custom graphs exactly what you are consuming.  If you need to eat more protein, for example, you can tweak your meals until you find the right balanced food that will provide you with the protein you are lacking without pushing you above the recommended daily allowance of other nutritional elements.  Because users are able to add information, this database is constantly expanding!

The nutritional breakdown tool is a powerful one, but it works best when synergized with Calorie Count’s online journal.  When you create a Calorie Count account, you have the option to start an online journal.  Take that opportunity!  You can keep your journal private, but Calorie Count’s online journal is a day by day, meal by meal record of your journey to weight loss.  After you enter all of your medical data, Calorie Count uses your journal to calculate not only all you take in, but how many calories you burn through every activity you perform throughout the day.  Using the journal function, Calorie Count provides you with recommendations on how best to exercise for your body type and health concerns!

Finally, at least for the space we have here, there is a social network function to Calorie Count.  Calorie Count connects you with other people who are trying to lose weight, so you may provide support, ask questions and share your triumphs for positive reinforcement.  Even better, nutritional experts are available on the site to help you meet your goals.

Losing weight is never easy; Calorie Count is a powerful weight loss tool that requires diligence, but provides all you need to lose weight!

About RESCUECOM:

RESCUECOM provides computer repair and computer support, 24/7: Meeting every tech support need including data recovery, virus removal, networking, wireless services, and computer support for all brands of hardware and software. For computer support or information on products, services, or computer repair, visit https://www.rescuecom.com or call 1-800-RESCUE-PC.

For More Information, Contact:

David Milman, CEO

315-882-1100

david@rescuecom.com

Marketing used to be a far more limited industry before the Internet.  With the rise of viral videos, the release of a movie trailer on the Internet can become a phenomenon in and of itself.  Viral marketing campaigns on the Internet have been known to make obscure movies with little potential appeal into cultural phenomena.  No one seems to understand the role of changing technologies in promoting films than Sue Kroll.

Sue Kroll is the President of Worldwide Marketing for Warner Bros. Pictures.  She has held the role since January 2008, when the position was created for her.  Prior to 2008, Sue Kroll served as Warner Bros. President of the International Marketing Division, a post she assumed in 2000.  The change in title is hardly just a semantic one; Kroll’s successes at promoting Warner Bros. films internationally led to the breakdown in barriers between the domestic and international divisions at Warner Bros!  By combining the domestic and international divisions into a worldwide marketing team, Kroll has rebranded Warner Bros. movies throughout the world.  That new, consistent, message has resonated with moviegoers around the world as her efforts made international phenomena out of the Harry Potter film saga, The Matrix sequels and the Oceans franchise!

Kroll rose through the ranks at Warner Bros. after working for Viacom and Turner Broadcasting.  While working for Turner Broadcasting, she was responsible for bringing TNT and the Cartoon Network to Europe.  One need only consider EuroDisney to know that not every American idea takes root overseas, but with Kroll’s guidance and market savvy, she literally built the Turner Broadcasting network in Europe!

At Warner Bros, Susan Kroll has refined her position and strengthened Warner Bros. position by being responsive to new technologies.  A key part of Susan Kroll’s international strategy to promote films is to respond to the market and adapt.  For example, when the first trailer for Green Lantern did not spark the enthusiasm and viral status on the Internet that Warner Bros. hoped, Kroll altered the marketing approach.  She waited until all of the special effects for Green Lantern were completed and released the new trailers a comparatively short time before the film was theatrically released.  By promoting the special effects right before the movie came out, Kroll created a type of “impulse item” demand for the movie that made it enough of a success at the box-office for Warner Bros. to consider building the film into a franchise.

Susan Kroll is one of the most powerful women in media today and she retains her authority in the marketplace, in part, by using the fantastic technological tools now available to her!

About RESCUECOM:

RESCUECOM provides computer repair and computer support, 24/7: Meeting every tech support need including data recovery, virus removal, networking, wireless services, and computer support for all brands of hardware and software. For computer support or information on products, services, or computer repair, visit https://www.rescuecom.com or call 1-800-RESCUE-PC.

For More Information, Contact:

David Milman, CEO

315-882-1100

david@rescuecom.com

There are many highly anticipated video games for 2012.  2012 marks the return of one of the most highly successful video game franchises of all time, Final Fantasy.  But as Final Fantasy prepares to make its next big leap forward with the release of Final Fantasy VIII – 2, it is worth looking back at how the popular franchise came to be.  For that, one needs look no further than Hironobu Sakaguchi.

Hironobu Sakaguchi is the creator of the Final Fantasy franchise and he is one of the most ambitious, creative, and successful minds in the video game industry.  Orphaned as a boy and then adopted, Sakaguchi had an unremarkable childhood in Japan.  However, while studying at Yokohama National University, he became fascinated with endeavors more creative than the electrical engineering he was studying.  At age twenty, Sakaguchi dropped out of college and joined the fledging software company Square.

It was at Square that Sakaguchi developed Rad Racer, a car racing game that Nintendo needed for commercial reasons to compete with Sega.  While Rad Racer was a commercial success, it was not the type of project that Hironobu Sakaguchi wanted to develop.  So, he developed Final Fantasy.  Final Fantasy was a role-playing game that Sakaguchi developed for the Nintendo platform.  He directed Final Fantasy, as well as conceived it, so his talents were embedded in every aspect of the game.  Prior to the release of Final Fantasy, Sakaguchi decided that his video game career would live or die with the product; if the game was a commercial flop, he intended to return to the university and finish his education.

The video game players of Japan and the United States had something else in mind for Sakaguchi!

Final Fantasy was a break-out success and that success compelled Nintendo to request a sequel, which was released the next year, with Sakaguchi directing that game as well.  With the success of Final Fantasy II, Hironobu Sakaguchi’s career was off to a roaring start.  He directed three more Final Fantasy video games and now, after twenty-five years, he is directing again with the newest game he conceived, The Last Story.  After Sakaguchi directed his last Final Fantasy video game, he continued to produce and develop other video games.  At least fifty different video games include Sakaguchi in their credits!

Hironobu Sakaguchi transformed video games by infusing them with a richer sense of storytelling than video games had prior to the release of Final Fantasy.  Sakaguchi was interested in developing characters in video games and telling stories.  With that view of the potential for what video games could be, it is no surprise that Hironobu Sakaguchi dabbled in directing films following the success of his many video games.  Unfortunately, his first major feature film, Final Fantasy: The Spirit Within was one of the worst box-office failures of all time.

Always resilient, though, Hironobu Sakaguchi today runs his own video game studio, Mistwalker, which provided some of the most successful games for Nintendo’s DS platform.

About RESCUECOM:

RESCUECOM provides computer repair and computer support, 24/7: Meeting every tech support need including data recovery, virus removal, networking, wireless services, and computer support for all brands of hardware and software. For computer support or information on products, services, or computer repair, visit https://www.rescuecom.com or call 1-800-RESCUE-PC.

For More Information, Contact:

David Milman, CEO

315-882-1100

david@rescuecom.com

The odds are good that if you have done any sort of financial transaction on the Internet, you have a PayPal account.  The spin-off of eBay has helped make eBay even more money than the auction site was making on its own.  By charging anyone who received money through PayPal, the financial company has generated enough revenue for itself to make PayPal a multi-billion dollar company.  PayPal has become the online financial powerhouse it has by taking money out of small businesses – like independent vendors who sell on eBay – and from the multi-billion dollar banking and credit card industries.  Now, Dwolla is entering the market to take a bite out of the credit card companies and PayPal.

It is about time.

Dwolla is using new technologies to provide its users with direct access to their bank accounts while protecting their private information.  The stated goal of Dwolla is to provide the flexibility of cash for the virtual world of the Internet.  Your Dwolla account is intended to give you a common source of payment online and in the real world without ever having to touch cash again.

What makes Dwolla different is its security and transparency.  Dwolla has unprecedented security controls that prevent identity theft by keeping your account numbers from ever getting to identity thieves.  In this way, Dwolla is very much like PayPal.  Unlike PayPal, Dwolla’s privacy controls allow users to restrict how much information is available to those they pay through the service.  With PayPal, you have access to quite a bit of information – at the very least e-mail address, name and address – of the person with whom you are doing business.  While that makes sense for virtual transactions that involve physical items shipped between two people, it makes less sense for charity donations and person-to-person transactions.

The real difference with Dwolla is in its fee structure.  Users pay $3.00 a month for their Dwolla account, which gives them access to a $500 line of credit and instant access to their own bank account.  If you use credit money and you do not pay it off by the end of the month, there are fees.  However, Dwolla encourages the small sales.  By eliminating transaction fees on all purchases less than $10, Dwolla fosters support for the small transactions that have been becoming more costly with each passing year.  The CEO of Dwolla argues that transactions like paying for a cup of coffee with your credit card are forcing vendors to charge more for their products and services.

Dwolla wants to turn that tide and help users get the most out of the money that should, by rights, be theirs.  The $.25 transaction fee on all charges above $10 is minimal when compared to PayPal’s oppressive fee scheme.  That is probably why eBay will resist incorporating Dwolla for as long as it legally can.

About RESCUECOM:

RESCUECOM provides computer repair and computer support, 24/7: Meeting every tech support need including data recovery, virus removal, networking, wireless services, and computer support for all brands of hardware and software. For computer support or information on products, services, or computer repair, visit https://www.rescuecom.com or call 1-800-RESCUE-PC.

For More Information, Contact:

David Milman, CEO

315-882-1100

david@rescuecom.com