Creationism : Godless Business

Each summer, consumer electronics gurus peer into their crystal balls to anticipate what hot gadgets will be considered must-haves for the upcoming holiday season. This year, those electronics taking center stage consist of some no-brainers as well as a few surprises. They’re fun, they’re innovative, and they’re sure to be sold out by the end of November. Here’s a preview of the hot gadgets that will be in the news and on almost everyone’s holiday wish list:

1. Apple iPhone. Steve Jobs has done it again and designed a totally innovative device that’s so much more than a mobile phone. With a gorgeous appearance, a bright three-and-a-half inch display, and an intuitive touchscreen user interface, the iPhone is captivating. And that’s before you even get to the features, which include an exceptional cell phone with visual voicemail, a digital camera, email functionality, a web browser, an iPod for music, and SMS. The applications, such as Google maps, stocks, weather, notes, and so forth, are just as impressive. As is the $500 price tag. Nonetheless, the iPhone is sure to top many holiday wish lists.

2. i-Sing from Outrageous. Consumer electronics and toy company Outrageous has taken the “American Idol” phenomenon to the logical step with i-Sing, a specialized MP3 player that is, for lack of a better term, a next generation handheld karaoke machine. After buying MP3 downloads, users can load them into the player, then use proprietary software to input the lyrics of the songs - either the original lyrics or those written by the user. Users can then easily remove the original vocals from a song and record their own voices over the melodies while reading a display of the lyrics. With an internal speaker and microphone, as well as a high quality display and earphones, i-Sing can be used to create music that users can then upload to YouTube, MySpace, and other social networking sites. And, at around $129, i-Sing is a sure-fire hit.

3. Nintendo Wii. Although the Nintendo Wii gaming console has been out for almost a year, its scarcity will still make it a hot commodity this holiday season - and for good reason. With its innovative controller and Nunchuk, Wii has taken gaming to the next level. But the Wii is much more than a gaming console. It also offers Web browsing, shopping, photo sharing, news, and much more. Now that the use of the system is ramping up, there are an increasing number of video games available for the Wii - which will also be hot this holiday season.

Each year, several hot gadgets emerge as top sellers for the holiday season. This year, you can bet that the iPhone, i-Sing, and Wii will make the cut.

I’ve always considered Intel to be one of the world’s best-managed technology brands. Last year, Interbrand ranked Intel as the fifth most valuable brand in the world. And it consistently stays in the top ten because management works hard to make sure the brand remains relevant in the fast-moving semiconductor market.

Of late, Intel has garnered a lot of press regarding the sweeping changes management intends to make in the company’s brand and product line. In many ways, these changes will send the world’s largest chipmaker into uncharted territory. Some analysts are saying that Intel’s new direction will necessitate creating a new brand. However, at its core, I believe Intel will very much remain the same company, mainly because the deeply established core values that drive the Intel brand are alive and well and working exactly as designed.

Under founder Andy Grove and successor CEO Craig Barrett, Intel thrived by concentrating on the microprocessors that power personal computers. They invested billions of dollars in plants that could crank out millions of processors, and in the process they helped give life to the age of the personal computer with ever-faster, more powerful chips. Occasionally, Grove and Barrett ventured into areas beyond microprocessors and personal computers. But from the outside, those tentative forays looked more like cautious experiments than full commitments to new markets. For the most part, Intel stuck to its very narrow focus, and in doing proceeded to bury the competition.

A New Direction

New CEO Paul Otellini appears to be steering Intel in a very different direction. Instead of remaining focused on PCs, he’s pushing the company to play a key technological role in a half-dozen fields, including consumer electronics, wireless communications and health care. And rather than continuing to focus solely on microprocessors, he wants Intel to create a variety of chips and software and then meld them together into what he calls “platforms.”

With Grove and Barrett at the helm, Intel first provided customers with full sets of technology ingredients, such as microprocessors, chipsets, communications chips and base software capabilities. Under Otellini, Intel will develop complete technology platforms based on Intel ingredients, an evolution best evidenced with the introduction of IntelÒ Centrino™ mobile technology. Even the “Intel Inside” logo will disappear, to be replaced by an updated Intel logo with a swirl around it to signify movement. And for the first time since the early 1990s, the company will add a tagline: “Leap ahead.”

At first glance, all of this looks like a sharp departure from the company Grove and Barrett built. However, upon closer examination, these moves turn out to be very “Grovesk” at their core.

In December 2005, Grove’s photo appeared on the cover of Fortune magazine, accompanying an article entitled “How to Become a Great Leader.” Fortune stated that Grove, 69, has never lost track of the truth — that Intel has always been one wrong move away from disaster and that a closed mind is the trap door to the abyss. During his tenure as CEO, Grove made numerous “bet-the-farm moves” could have killed the company but ended up propelling it forward. For example, his decision to get out of the now commodity memory chip business and focus solely on microprocessors. Or the decision to stick with Intel’s mainstay chip technology, CISC, rather than pursue the new, more glamorous, RISC technology. Or the decision to focus on microprocessors for PCs and invest billions of dollars in plants to manufacture them.

While it appeared that Intel was doing most of the adapting, it was really Grove himself who underwent the most radical change. Forcing himself to constantly adapt to a succession of new realities, he left a trail of discarded assumptions in his wake. Grove attacked every problem the same way, by setting aside everything he knew. Fast-forward to the present, and it looks to me like Otellini and team are doing the exact same thing in the exact same way that Grove taught them.

The Old Values Remain

In its January 9, 2005 edition, BusinessWeek ran a cover story entitled, “Intel Inside Out: How It’s Shaking Off the Andy Grove Era.” I don’t think so.

From my perspective, the legacy of Grove is very much alive and well at Intel. If fact, the article states that when asked about the sweeping changes at Intel, Grove replied in the following manner: “I want to say,” he boomed, “that this program strikes me as one of the best manifestations incorporating Intel values of risk-taking, discipline and results orientation I have ever seen here. I, for one, fully support it.”

What a leader! Grove understood that the sweeping changes at Intel were not an indictment of his and Barrett’s leadership. Rather, he recognized that times had changed and that Intel needs to — again — change with them.

Perhaps Grove’s greatest legacy is the strength with which he built in the values that drive Intel’s brand. If the new management team remains true to those values, and I believe they will, Intel will continue to make the right moves in a market where change is not only constant but is accelerating all the time.

Microsoft Exchange Server is software product designed to make emailing faster and more efficient. As email is now a critical function in the business environment and a great deal of business is now conducted by email, many companies are finding that using Microsoft Exchange Server has increased the reliability of their email functions as well as adding a host of other applications that can be utilized to make conducting regular business even easier. So what exactly are the benefits of using Microsoft Exchange Server?

One of the biggest benefits that Microsoft Exchange Server provides to its users in the enhance security features included in the software package. There are many different threats that can compromise the security of a software package today and Microsoft Exchange Server works to neutralize those threats, leaving the users less vulnerable to hackers, viruses, and spam. It also works to ensure that emails remain confidential and are not compromised by outside sources. This enhanced security allows companies to feel confident that their email system is protected at all times and allows employees and customers to utilize the email system to its full potential.

Companies that use Microsoft Exchange Server can allow their employees to access their email from anywhere in the world. Whether the employee is in the office or on the road, they will be able to access all of their important documents and can respond to any important inquiry at a moments notice. The email platform used by Microsoft Exchange Server is Microsoft Office Outlook which has many different features designed to make email and contact management simple and trouble-free. Some of the features that can be used with Microsoft Office Outlook and Microsoft Exchange Server include calendar features, scheduling features, voice mail storage, and contact management programs.

Microsoft Exchange Server also allows businesses to be more efficient, by making it a great deal easier to find and fix any issues that may arise. It also has improved monitoring capabilities so that any issues that do occur can be detected quickly before it disrupts business by a great amount. Many tasks that are needed to keep Microsoft Exchange Server operating properly have been automated, allowing the administrators more time to deal with more pressing issues. There are many benefits to using Microsoft Exchange Server and many businesses are discovering that this is a program that they cannot do without.

Unlike other electronic devices, computer is the sum of its parts. Nobody cares about the specifications and make of the picture tube of a particular brand of television. But in the case of computers, more than the brand name the specifications of its components like processor, motherboard, RAM, hard disk, and suchlike are the things that a knowledgeable consumer first asks about. Here is computer hardware terminology in a nutshell.

Processor or microprocessor is a powerful IC chip on which a number of functions are incorporated. It is the heart and brain of the computer rolled into a chip. Its efficiency depends on its speed of processing, which is specified by its frequency and it is denoted using gigahertz. The higher the speed, the better will be its functioning. Also, there are several types of processors such as 32-bit processor and 64-bit processor. The bit rate is not actually a yardstick of speed. The larger bit rate means the processor will be able to efficiently do several computing processes at the same time.

Another main item in computer hardware terminology is motherboard. In simple terms, it is the platform on which all the other components are electrically fitted in. Over the years, a number of additional functionalities such as sound card, graphics card, and networking card are slotted on to the motherboard. When selecting motherboard, one should make sure that the motherboard is compatible with other components such as processor, hard disk, and RAM.

Hard disk and RAM are the next items in the hierarchy of computer hardware terminology. A computer has two types of memory. Permanent memory is stored magnetically on hard disk and it will be stored in the disk even after the computer is shut down. On the other hand, RAM or random access memory will be off once the computer is shut down. It is the kind of memory on which the functional information while running a computer, like running programs and unsaved data, are kept when computer is running. When you save a file, the data is stored to hard disk from RAM.

Nowadays the memory capacity of hard disk is skyrocketing. It is all set to break the upper limits of gigabytes. Comparing to that, RAM was a slow starter. It is still ambling along the lower middle part of gigabytes. Lay users do not need a RAM with a large capacity. The price of RAM increases with the rise in memory capacity.

Computer peripherals like keyboard, mouse, monitor, CD or DVD drives and writers, speaker, and webcams are all part of a large list called computer hardware terminology. There are other hardware items also such as graphics card, sound card and video card for sound recording and video editing facility, and internal and external modems for browsing the internet.

You can spend millions on the latest and greatest enterprise software to run your business. However, if the people who use that software daily don’t fully understand how to get the most out of it, you’ve wasted your investment. The new software will end up adding little or no productivity to your workforce, and may end up making things worse. Your people will get frustrated and develop a bad attitude about the system. This is especially true among less tech savvy employees. For more details go to www.scripts-to-sell.com .How often have you heard a customer or supplier of yours complain over the phone that their system is slow, or it is hard to find information? If your experience is like mine, you hear it a lot. What message does that send about their company? Either their software is lousy, or their people are too dumb to use it. Sometimes, both are true, but more often the people just haven’t been properly trained.

A great example of this is a small company I worked for that upgraded their enterprise software after 20 years of working with an outdated, slow, and just plain difficult to use custom software. The company upgraded to a canned software system designed for companies in their industry. It was a great package with lots of excellent features that were certainly going to be very beneficial to all the employees.

Because of poor training however, employees hated the new software. They longed for the old system because as difficult as it was, it was familiar. That’s the key. They knew how the old system worked, and how it related to their daily tasks.

Among the companies I’ve worked with one of the biggest money holes is poor software training. So many companies, from Fortune 100 down to 10-20 employee businesses believe that the training provided by the software manufacturer is sufficient. It never is because while the software company may understand the generalities of your industry, they never have a full understanding of the company’s particular way of doing business.

At first all was well. A team of employees was given the task of transferring data, and preparing the new software for the go live date. Each employee was given a series of CD ROMs that taught them all about the software, and quizzed them on the features. Six weeks prior to the go live date four-hour training sessions were scheduled for three nights in a row with all the employees and a trainer from the software company. Everyone learned a lot about the new software. To know more about it logon to www.quick-selling-software.com .What the software trainer could not teach was how to apply the particular situations each employee faced on a daily basis to the software. The trainer knew the software inside and out, but had no idea about company procedures, methods, etc., and how they relate to the software. So, for all the training the employees got on the technical aspects of the new software, they really didn’t know how to use it effectively.

So, along came the go live day, and all H-E double hockey sticks broke loose. The team originally charged with transferring data, and preparing for go live was overwhelmed with questions, complaints, and whining about the software. When it came time to use the software for real most employees were lost. This put a significant burden on management to deal with all the questions and complaints, and slowed productivity to a crawl.

Worse, the attitude of the employees began to sour toward the new software. Once a bad attitude sets in it is extremely difficult to turn around. Some employees began vocalizing their frustration while talking with customers. That’s bad news because now they were telling their customers their company was screwed up. That does not exactly instill confidence among customers. Besides, bad word spreads like a virus.

The company’s huge investment was essentially wasted because there were no improvements from the new software.

As time went on certain employees began to figure things out. They began to understand how to make the new software work with their needs, and how canned software can flex to fit a particular company. The problem was some people figured out some things, but not others. No one had solved all the problems. Even worse there was no forum to discuss these little nuggets of knowledge. So, no one was sharing their discoveries with others in the company. The result was some employees gaining productivity in some areas while others were gaining productivity in other areas, but the organization as a whole was not seeing any measurable gains.

If you want protection from viruses, spam emails, malware, and spyware, then install internet security software into your computer. It scans your computer or email to be able to identify potential malware by type, behavior or appearance. Once detected, you are given the option whether to quarantine or delete them from your system. This type of software is available either in antispam or antivirus programs.

Be secure online

Depending on your needs or use, you can choose between an antivirus or an antispam internet security software. Antivirus internet security works by identifying and blocking the viruses. You can automatically or manually activate it to scan for potential viruses in your computer. It will scan your system’s boot sectors, program files and drives and will detect malicious computer files that resemble viruses. Both large offices with networked computers and personal users can benefit from this type.

Meanwhile, antispam internet security can detect and block all unsolicited emails sent to your account. You can directly install this software into your computer or your mail server. It also works by blocking spam emails by determining parameters like the file types, subject headings, and sender addresses. This type is available in either paid or free server-based versions.

A few reminders

Choose an internet security software that allows you to have a free trial first so you can test its efficiency for at least 30 days. However, make sure that your computer can meet its minimum system requirements for maximum performance. Finally, when you make a decision to buy one, make sure that you get a licensed copy to ensure exclusive, legal, and valid updates from time to time.