Computer Support Blog

The rise of the personal computer has not been accompanied by any profound change in the human animal.  As a result, humans frequently suffer pain from prolonged computer use.  Between computer eye strain and sore neck muscles from improper monitor/screen placement, the effects on your health may undo the convenience of a laptop computer.  While scientists for years have worked on ways to combat computer eye strain, there have been fewer efforts to reduce muscle fatigue specifically caused by computer use.  Osim changes that with the creation of the uPixie!

The uPixie by Osim is the world’s first laptop massager.  More than a simple massager, the uPixie connects to your laptop computer.  The uPixie interacts with your digital music player and offers you a safe, convenient way to relax your muscles even when you are still working on your laptop!  The scientists at Osim created a functional, fun and unique product with the uPixie.

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Internet humor is, arguably, an acquired taste and it is certainly dominated by youth!  Because young people tend to be fickle, staying with something only so long as it is trendy, many Internet humor sites and Internet humor phenomena are not enduring.  They rise up, the novelty of their form of humor captivates an audience and then the audience dissipates and the contributors go on to the next big thing.  One of the real exceptions to that cycle came from the creative mind of Sherrod DeGrippo.

Sherrod DeGrippo is the creator of Encyclopaedia Dramatica and, before you go looking for it, don’t bother; Encyclopaedia Dramatica is no longer on the Internet.  The site closed down in 2011, but what makes Sherrod DeGrippo so impressive is that she almost singlehandedly held together the perverse, edgy and often disturbing Encyclopaedia Dramatica for seven years.  That makes Encyclopaedia Dramatica one of the biggest successes in Internet free speech and Internet humor yet.

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The Internet is a remarkably shifty place.  Like the most clique-oriented teenagers, the Internet is home to overnight successes and equally fast crashes in popularity.  The Internet is, in many ways, the ultimate medium for those who have short attention spans.  Perhaps that is why there have been remarkably few Internet music phenomena.  The latest celebrity in music to have gotten her start from exposure on the Internet is also, arguably, the one who has gained the most from her time as an Internet phenomenon.  That person is Rebecca Black.

Rebecca Black was thirteen years old when she became an Internet phenomenon with her song “Friday.”  ARK Music Factory produced the song “Friday” and its creation was a gift from Black’s mother to Rebecca.  When the video for “Friday” was released on YouTube, it languished for a month before exploding with popularity.  On March 11, 2011, “Friday” started picking up millions of hits and the song and Rebecca Black became trending topics on Twitter.  Despite having a vastly disproportionate number of “dislike” ratings by viewers, “Friday” became a legitimate Internet success when YouTube users downloaded the video over 165 million times. The video earned tens of thousands of dollars in royalties and revenue-sharing from advertising through YouTube.

But how did Rebecca Black become an Internet phenomenon and what did she do with her sudden celebrity?

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In the United States, students learn that there are two avenues to success: connections and higher education.  While nepotism and interpersonal relationships certainly have their roles in advancing one’s career, nothing takes the place of hard work.  But even those who work hard are told the only way to truly get ahead is by pursuing higher education.  The technology sector confounds those expectations by advancing educated individuals who have great ideas and needed skills, as opposed to just higher degrees.  One executive who has benefitted from corporations who value experience over degrees is Patti S. Hart.

Patti S. Hart is the Chief Executive Officer of International Game Technology, the maker of video slot machines, like Lucky Larry’s Lobstermania!  Hart joined the Board of Directors of IGT in 2006 and ascended to CEO of IGT in 2009.  Since becoming CEO, Patti Hart has expanded the influence of IGT in casinos and promoted the video game versions of IGT games, making International Game Technology even more profitable.

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Have you had enough with portable technology devices?  If you said ”yes,” it can hardly be considered a surprise.  More than any other time in history, the consumer electronics market is overflowing with options . . . so many that it is easy to fail to see what the point of it all is.  Media players alone have become a market where the options seem to be designed more for competition between products than actually filing a niche that is desperately yearning to be filled.

For small-screen devices, you have your smartphones.  While many of the smartphones have screens that are less than 2” for the diagonal screen measurement, the iPod Touch changed the nature of such devices when Apple released it with a 3.5” screen.  This created a niche of handheld devices that could surf the Internet and perform all sorts of media functions, including playing movies and music.  The Apple iPhone added telephone communication to that and with that, Apple firmly entered the smartphone wars.

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In the vernacular of the young folks: O M G.

Just when you might think you have seen everything there is in the marketplace that could define decadence, someone pioneers some new overpriced bauble and puts to shame everything that came before.  It is hard not to have that sort of gut-wrenching, jaw-dropping reaction when you see the most expensive computer mouse in the world. That mouse is the Diamond Flower RF mouse from Pat Says Now.

Pat Says Now is a Swiss novelty mouse manufacturer.  The company also caters to high-end customers who, apparently, have far too much money to spend.  The Diamond Flower RF mouse is their premium product and currently stands as the most expensive computer mouse in the world.  The current retail price of the Diamond Flower RF mouse is $20,250.  That is not a typo: twenty thousand, two hundred fifty dollars . . . for a computer mouse.

Wow.

The Diamond Flower RF mouse is a standard computer mouse in many ways.  It is a standard RF mouse in that it is wireless and includes a receiver.  When you plug the receiver into your computer’s USB port, the mouse relays even the tiniest movements to your computer to move the cursor on your screen.  The Diamond Flower is a plug-and-play ambidextrous mouse for that works on any Windows-based computer from Windows 98 to Windows Vista.  The Diamond Flower also interfaces perfectly with all Mac computers running OS X and beyond.  The Diamond Flower features two buttons and a scroll wheel.

What, then, makes the Diamond Flower RF mouse worth over twenty thousand dollars?  First, the scroll wheel is not actually a scroll wheel.  The Diamond Flower RF mouse does not have anything as inelegant as a physical wheel that might make noise or need periodic cleaning.  Instead, Pat Says Now designed an optical sensor for the scroll wheel.  Just as the laser below the mouse precisely tracks in the place of a physical mouse ball, the optical scroll allows you to lightly pass your finger over the sensor on the top of the mouse to get on-screen movement you would expect form a scroll wheel!

The main factor driving up the price of the Diamond Flower RF mouse is the fact that the shell of the mouse is 18 carat gold.  Because you might not want to have the same vastly overpriced mouse as your other rich friends, the Diamond Flower RF mouse comes in white gold or a traditional yellow gold shell.  Embedded in the gold shell are fifty-nine diamonds.  Yes, the name “Diamond Flower” is not just for show, the Diamond Flower RF mouse features fifty-nine diamonds in the shape of a flower embedded in the shell of the mouse.

So, if you want to feel like a high roller and have enough money to buy a new car, but want to spend it on a computer mouse instead, the Diamond Flower RF mouse is for you!

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

In the video game world, there is never truly time to relax.  Despite innovations in gaming that might create the year’s biggest entertainment phenomenon, executives at video game companies are always pushing for the next big thing.  So, even though Electronic Arts had one of the biggest video game releases of 2011 with Battlefield 3, it is already deep at work trying to dominate the market in 2012.  Leading EA Labels is Frank Gibeau.

Frank Gibeau is the President of EA Labels, the division of Electronic Arts that oversees all of the video game divisions.  Gibeau rose to the lead position of EA Labels after years of hard work with a very painful beginning.  After getting his B.S. in Business and International Relations, a stairway collapsed on Gibeau, seriously injuring him.  Gibeau broke his leg in the accident, forcing him to be immobile while his leg healed.  He recuperated at his parents’ house, playing video games.  At the time, Electronic Arts was in its infancy and they were looking to hire professional game players to test their games. Gibeau limped over and got himself a job for $10,000/year playing video games!  Gibeau’s real big break, though, came in 1999 when he was assigned to market The Sims.  With The Sims, Gibeau had a huge success for EA that brought him to the attention of the executives at EA who fostered his career.

Taking over as President in 2011, Gibeau made the successful transition from game player and marketer to corporate executive.  In addition to the exceptionally popular Battlefield 3, as President, Gibeau brought to market the very successful Dead Space 2, Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows Part 2, and The Sims: Medieval video games.  Gibeau saw the potential of growing social networking platforms and launched SimSocial on Facebook as well.  2011 was a very good year for EA because of Gibeau’s guidance of the company.

Gibeau ended 2011 with his biggest gamble yet, the release of the massively multi-player online role playing game Star Wars: The Old Republic.  This new video game required a massive investment of time and money on the part of EA and while the project was begun well before Gibeau took over as President, it fell to him to successfully shepherd it to market.  Competing against the exceptionally popular World Of Warcraft and the recently-successful DC Universe Online Legends, Gibeau had the dual challenges of attracting Star Wars fans who have not traditionally been video game fans to the endeavor and luring the fiercely loyal fans of the other massively multi-player online role playing to the new game.  With huge sales since December 20 when EA originally released the game, Star Wars: The Old Republic Gibeau gets to take credit for this a massive success!

Frank Gibeau has a keen marketing sense, as is evidenced by the exclusive Battlefield 3 V.I.P. kits, and the gaming credentials to lead EA Labels effectively!

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

As energy independence and the growth of renewable energy resources become more important than ever, there are very few established big businesses in the energy industry diversifying fast enough to satisfy investors and consumers.  As big energy companies struggle to keep dying paradigms for energy production and corporate management alive, a new generation of leaders is emerging.  Carlos Coe is one such emerging leader in the field of renewable energy.

Carlos Coe is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Xtreme Power.  His training and work experience made him an ideal leader to trail blaze in the field of renewable energy.  After receiving his Bachelor’s in Engineering from the Citadel, Carlos Coe was accepted to Princeton University.  At that prestigious institution, Coe studied engineering at the Masters and Doctorate levels.  From the moment he received his Ph.D., Carlos Coe has worked on and managed projects for some of the biggest manufacturers in the United States.  He moved from BDM International (part of Ford Aerospace!) to the Whirlpool Corporation before running the refrigeration company Anthony International.  In 2004, Dr. Coe left Anthony International to found Xtreme Power, well before “renewable energy” was a popular buzzword!

In founding Xtreme Power, Carlos Coe took a stand against many giants in the energy industry.  Forming the company with a stated goal of innovating sustainable, renewable energy sources effectively left Coe thumbing his nose at the industry authorities.  Dr. Coe formed Xtreme Power primarily as a research and development company, which was an issue for many of the myopic energy companies.  The established competitors of Xtreme Power in the energy production industry frequently have (or had!) research and development departments. As a matter of corporate policy, many big energy companies would not pursue promising developments if the innovations required too much initial investment or upset those with whom they had a business relationship.  By forming his own company, Carlos Coe and Xtreme Power were not beholden to those old paradigms.

And what success Coe and Xtreme Power have been having already!  Just last year, Xtreme Power won a $43 million contract from Duke Energy for the Notrees Power Project near Kermit, Texas.  There they are experimenting with new batteries for storing electricity derived from wind power.  This important development could make wind power a vastly more reliable means of electricity generation than it has been.  In addition to residential and industrial power projects in Hawaii, New Mexico, and Colorado, Coe has scored big contracts with Ford Motors for power cell generation for consumer products, like automobiles!

Ironically, Xtreme Power’s innovations so far have greatly benefited several traditional energy providers by stabilizing energy output during peak demand times as well as during emergencies.  As the United States moves to more and more renewable energy sources for electricity generation, Carlos Coe and Xtreme Power are leading the way with their complete energy production systems!

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

Computer users have made the World Wide Web into an outlet for humor since the formation of the Internet.  Because humor is so subjective, sites that simply distribute mainstream humor, like syndicated comic strips or humorous anecdotes, tend not to draw the attention needed to become a true Internet phenomenon.  As the Internet meme phenomenon grows, one site stands out as a funny, edgy humorous site.  That site is Memebase.

Memebase is a free to use, free to view website that offers anyone with a sense of humor the chance to express it using Internet memes.  For those unfamiliar with the phenomenon, Internet memes are an offshoot of lolcats that use pictures of more than just cats.  Internet memes use pictures that have been culled from pop culture and you use to make single-panel jokes or multi-panel strips.  Memebase has collections of Internet memes that combine classic pop culture images with drawn images that have become as well-recognized in the Internet meme community.  Those drawings are often crude and focus on basic facial expressions that meme designers may reuse with different statements for almost infinite comic potential.

Memebase has a very easy-to-use interface.  The home page is a list of the current featured memes and the site has the organization of a standard blog.  Instead of blog articles, scrolling down transports you through various current memes.

One of the real distinctions of Memebase over many, similar sites, is the on-site meme builder.  Clicking on the Meme Builder tab on the front page of Memebase, you get the ability to create memes almost instantly.  Memebase includes over sixty premade photograph memes, most of which are unique to the site.  Some, like a stock image of Bill O’Reilly or Fry from Futurama are a little more universally-recognizable.  By clicking on the “Caption Now” button, you may make a brand new, humorous meme in seconds.  After that, another button allows you to share your meme with the Memebase community.

The humor on Memebase is almost-constantly rotating, so there is always material that is new and funny.  Because humor differs so much from person to person and culture to culture, it helps to know that the Internet meme phenomenon is not for everyone.  The humor on the site can be very edgy, though the visual component of the site is always safe for work.  For example, on the front page of Memebase, there was a simple meme of an anagram followed by a photograph of a face with a shocked expression.  While some might find the visual representation of how “Mother In Law” is an anagram for “Woman Hitler” hilarious, others might appear just as shocked as the reaction picture attached to the first panel.  That is the nature of humor, though, and Memebase accepts humor of all kinds.

For adults looking for a laugh or looking to put a humorous idea into print using already-created images, Memebase is an invaluable resource.  At the forefront of the Internet meme phenomenon, Memebase remains cool.

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