Directive Blogs

The evolution of Google from a search engine company renting a garage, to one of the largest companies on the planet, is a story that can truly boggle the mind. One cause of Google's growth is their investment in developing new technology. This is the case with the Google Spanner, which is a new technology designed to manage Google's growth.

Business growth is a double edged sword. It is great that you are increasing revenue, but you now have to deal with growing pains. These growing pains are often felt with your technology. Is your network cobbled together with random computers and your wires are one big tangle ball? Directive can help relieve these IT growing pains with network mapping.

The ramifications of social media have extended well beyond just a tool used to keep in touch with friends. From games, to advertising, to even aiding in the overthrow of Middle Eastern governments, social media has added a new and powerful dynamics to the way people use technology. For better or for worse, social media also adds new and interesting dynamics to the most social part of our lives, our families.

As your vacation winds down, the reality of being away for a week or two begins to sneak up on you. Knowing that you have a full inbox of back messages may put a damper on your relaxed mood. If you planned ahead, then you would have used an auto responder to automatically notify everyone that you were away.

In 2011, Ponemon Research surveyed 583 U.S. businesses and found that 90% of respondents reported that their company's computers had been breached at least once by hackers within the past year; 77% of these companies felt like they were attacked multiple times within the same year. If your SMB does not have any protection from hackers, then your sensitive data is at serious risk.

Facebook has recently achieved one billion active users. Being on top of the social media world comes with a price. Facebook has become one of the top 10 most hated companies in America, this according to a January 2013 study from news site 24/7 Wall St. This survey takes into account customer and employee satisfaction and, most of all, stock prices.

In today's digital age there are actually two of you. There is the flesh and blood you, that you are all-too-familiar with, and then there is the digital you, which amounts to a profile of yourself, compiled of data that is collected and exchanged by companies all over the internet. The worst part is how little you may know about your digital self.

Unless you are an English major, writing a well thought-out message without any spelling or grammatical errors can be a challenging task. There is not yet a technology that will transform a couple of bullet points into a detailed thesis paper, but Microsoft Word does include helpful tools that will improve the spelling and grammar for any aspiring writer.

Directive would like to welcome Kaler Carpenter to our content team. Kaler and his wife Laura moved to Oneonta, NY in 2009 in order to start a new church called The Redemption Movement. Originially from Missouri, Kaler and Laura met each other while attending Central Bible College in Springfield, MO. They have experience working with underprivileged teenagers. They are currently renovating an old storefront to launch their church on Good Friday.

If you never connected your PC to the internet, then you could get away with not updating any of your software. Do to the changing nature of the internet, new security threats are constantly attacking your computer. Internet browsers are your door to the internet and require constant updating in order to keep your PC protected from these threats.

There are several practices that you can do in order to keep your PC safe from computer viruses. Not visiting shady websites and keeping your antivirus program up-to-date are proven best practices; although, sometimes these practices are not enough. Sometimes hackers will find vulnerabilities in a trusted application and take advantage of them, this happened recently to Java.

It always feels a bit peculiar to come across a fax machine still being used in the modern office. With all of our digital advancements, the fax machine should have gone the way of the floppy disk. Contrary to common sense, it is estimated that there are 131 million fax machines still in operation around the world.

Which is worst, fingernails scraping down a chalkboard or slow internet? A person who would answer the former has likely never experienced internet speeds in excess of 1 Mbps. It is a proven fact that faster is better. Before you decide to complain to your Internet Service Provider (ISP) or even switch providers, make sure that you are informed about what your internet speed is and should be.

Since the dawn of technical support, it has been a running cliche that when you need to call customer service, especially technical support, you are going to wait. And wait. It starts with a clunky automated phone system that sends you in circles, followed by a triathlon of phone hand offs where you answer a bunch of basic questions repetitively. Pretty annoying, right?

The smartphone market is possibly the most competitive in computing. It's no secret that Apple and Samsung are competitors. Earlier this year in California, a federal jury sided with Apple in a ruling that found Samsung infringed on software and design patents. When the two aren't duking it out in court, they are battling in the marketplace.

Technology can change in an instant. The popularity of mobile devises and tablets has grown exponentially in a very short amount of time. In fact, having a tablet, smartphone, laptop and desktop is not an unusual occurrence, especially for small and medium business owners who are, essentially, always on the clock. And so, it stands to reason that threats and security are also evolving along with technology.

There are dozens of PC tricks and procedures you can try in order to speed up a slow computer. Before you do something drastic like open your case and tinker around with the hardware, or reinstall your OS, or even call your friendly IT techs for a service call, you may first want to adopt these four PC practices that are guaranteed to boost your computer's performance.

In business, you will gladly take every advantage that you can in regards to communications. This is because better communications will positively impact everything you do. Switching your phones system from a traditional carrier to a Voice over IP (VoIP) internet solution will not only give your business a communications edge, but also save you 50-70% on your phone bill.

With 46% of American adults owning a smartphone, the Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) to work revolution is here to stay. BYOD may be convenient for employees, but it also presents challenges for IT network security. To complicate the matter further, we are now seeing a new revolution with Bring Your Own Application to work (BYOA).

The concept behind company time is simple enough: you are employed, and therefore expected to do whatever you agreed upon while "on the clock." To be fair, you are given a few breaks to attend to personal matters; yet, as easy to grasp as this seems, the average employee wastes two hours of company time per day on the internet.

Everybody wants to go paperless, but few people actually want to sit in front of their PC for hours scanning piles of paperwork. If scanning papers was more convenient, then surely more people would go paperless, this is the logic behind the Doxie scanner. Doxie is a portable scanning solution that lets you scan anything from anywhere.

The new Windows 8 OS has received strong reviews on performance, and complaints in regards to the new interface. The main gripe is that the new tile layout is too different than the older versions of Windows, due in no small part to the lack of a start button. Leave it to third party software developers to build a solution.

Internet bandwidth is a precious resource, and the amount your office can use is limited to whatever internet service package your company is signed up for. If your office is running short on bandwidth, then you will need to upgrade to a bigger package, which will be expensive. Before you spend money on upgrading, you should consider internet monitoring.

Are you compiling your New Year's resolution list and looking for some help to achieve your goals? If one of your resolutions is to spend less time goofing off on the internet and more time being productive, then we want to share with you a helpful app called Freedom that will help achieve your resolution.

(To the tune of: Santa Claus is Coming to Town)

No need to watch out
Techs are standing by
There's no need to pout
Remote help via Wi-Fi
Your MSP will know when you're down

With the holiday season upon us, there is no better time to than the present for tech savvy consumers to find the hottest new technology. The ChargeCard may just be that. Cords can be inconvenient, mobile device cases do not have room for your charging cord, and cords do not fit inside pockets very well. You may even have to carry a bag just for your cord. A new product called ChargeCard takes care of this issue by allowing you to charge your iPhone with a card that fits inside your wallet.

At some point or another you will be asked to present information to a crowd of people. Whether you have to give a presentation about how you can best profit from a bake sale for your local PTA or you're presenting a sales pitch to potential investors, vendors, or clients; using advances in presentation technology and methodology to your advantage can help you make a strong first impression and more importantly, a lasting one. Below are some presentation services that can be used to enhance the content of your demonstration.

You are confident that your employees are good at problem solving, this is why you hired them. Your staff may even thrive on finding solutions with limited resources and keeping operations within budget. It is wonderful that you have surrounded yourself with skillful people, but using your bright staff to fix an IT problem may hurt your business in the long run.

Step back from your monitor for a moment and take a look at your business. Customers from all over the Upstate New York area and beyond are being helped. You have an inbox full of email from countless prospects and clients, and your activity on the world wide web is literally connecting you around the world. This complex coordination of of resources and people in front of you is called logistics.

Have you ever stopped and wondered where the internet is housed? Maybe all the websites are on a skyscraper-sized router? Maybe the internet all fits inside your computer? Most of the information is actually stored in data center facilities all over the world, and the sheer size and complexity of these centers will boggle your mind.

Is there no problem that technology cannot solve? It seems like anything is possible with new technology advancements like StickNFind. Available in March 2013, StickNFind uses a Bluetooth sticker and your smartphone with a radar-like interface to help you find anything. Finally technology has helped man answer his most pressing question, "Where's the remote?"

The Reply All feature of e-mail is both a tool of great convenience and great embarrassment. Not since the nuclear bomb button has there been a single button that can do so much damage. To help you avoid making this fatal mistake with your e-mail, we will share with you a free Outlook add-on called TuneReplyAll.

The expression on Drew's face is a perfect picture of what data loss looks like. There is nothing more frustrating than spending an entire day on a project, only to have it all disappear with a system error. Drew's mistake was that he was saving all of his work directly on his laptop. Not only is his work susceptible to a hard drive failure and the computer crashing, but his laptop is also at risk of being stolen along with all of his personal data.

Microsoft Office 2013 will be released during Q1 of 2013. The previews we have seen look promising, Office 365 has cloud-based services and touch screen features that work well with the new Windows 8 OS. We will highlight a few of these upgrades by looking at five new features with OneNote 2013.

Taking screenshots of your desktop is infinitely useful (including when you get a strange error that you can't seem to repeat when IT is standing by).. Although the process of taking a screenshot has always felt a bit more cumbersome than it needs to be due to the additional steps of opening editing software, formatting the image, and saving the file. Lightshot is a solution that simplifies the entire screenshot process.

Does it feel like your new Windows 8 OS is missing something? It might be because Microsoft Office 365 is not out yet; it is scheduled to be released Q1 of 2013. The updated Office applications have been overhauled to flow with Windows 8, and we want highlight five of these new features found specifically in Excel 2013.

What feelings are conjured up by the phrase, "file not found?" If you are unable to locate an important file on your PC, you are going to have a bad time. Insult is added to injury when you cannot find a file that you created because you do not remember what you named it.

Do you have a plan in place for when your technology breaks or crashes? As wonderful as computers are, the hardware wears down, and software can become buggy and crash. Having a go-to plan in place for IT hiccups, will save you time and frustration from having to react to a problem and scramble to find a fix.

Spending hours every day staring at a computer monitor can cause strain to your eyeballs. Computer vision syndrome (CVS) affects 50 to 90 percent of computer workers physically with headaches, eye twitching, and physical fatigue. CVS can decrease productivity and even increase work errors. To help alleviate eye strain, Windows has an easy-to-use feature called ClearType.

With computing becoming increasing mobile, software companies have begun to roll out all kinds of file sharing options. There have been many of these file sharing options made available to consumers and companies alike, with most adhering to the freemium business model. Google (Drive), Apple (iCloud), and Microsoft (SkyDrive), and countless others have released file sharing and collaboration software via the cloud and while these services are great if you want to share small files like documents or playlists, when you need to share large files or a large quantity of files, these solutions quickly become expensive.

The smartphone ownership rate for American adults increased to 46% in 2012, this according to a study by Pew Research. This study does not include other mobile devices like tablets, laptops, and notebooks, but the use of these devices is also growing, with worldwide sales for just smartphones and tablets projected to hit 1.2 billion in 2013.  

Checking and replying to emails can be a drain of precious time in your day. For this week’s tip, we have a shortcut to share with you that will quickly attach a file to Microsoft Outlook; saving you the time of searching your documents in order to locate a certain file.

Marketers love to paste QR codes on just about everything; from newspapers, DVD cases, retail displays, even fast food wrappers! QR codes are great for marketing, giving consumers instant access to a company's website, but QR codes also have many practical uses beyond advertising. Here are three helpful tricks you might not have known.

Like clockwork, the release of Windows 8 is accompanied by a new version of Microsoft Office. The new Office will not come out until Q1 of 2013, but many product details have already been revealed; and they are in keeping with the cleaner, sleeker design of Windows 8. Here is a look at a few new features for Word 2013.

Windows has been on tablets for years. In fact, one of the first prototype tablets, the NCR-produced model 3125 notepad computer ran the Microsoft Windows for Pen Computing software for the Windows 3.1 operating system (OS). Today, 21 years later the software giant has ventured back into the portable-computing hardware arena with the Microsoft Surface Tablet.

Domain registration is a fairly simple procedure. Virtually every web hosting company has a step-by-step process where you enter your information, create a website URL, decide how long the registration period will be, pay for everything, and then forget about it. As simple as registration can be, if done incorrectly it can come back to haunt you.

Riding the hype wave from the launch of Windows 8 is the newest version of Microsoft Office. Scheduled for release during Q1 of 2013, Office 365 has significant upgrades and new features in line with the revamp of Windows 8. We will showcase a few of these improvements by looking at 5 new features for PowerPoint 2013.

The 2012 holiday online shopping season is shaping up to be the biggest yet. Harris Interactive conducted a survey regarding this holiday season, and found that 51% of Americans plan on shopping online this year. Everybody has different reasons to shop online, 71% of respondents thought they could find better deals, and 31% want to simply avoid the crowds.

Studies have shown that fatigue-related productivity losses and workplace accidents can be extremely detrimental to a company's production, and ultimately, its bottom line. In fact, a 2010 study done by internationally-renowned fatigue management expert Dr. Mark Rosekind and his colleagues found that fatigue-related losses at four U.S. corporations they surveyed totaled about $2,000 per employee annually. There are some options open to an employer to make certain that he or she gets the highest level of productivity from his or her employees.

Laptops are like the Grape-Nuts cereal of computers. Just as a Grape-Nut is neither a grape nor a nut, so it is with laptops, they are not designed to operate sitting on top of a lap! Of course, using a laptop on your lap is not going to immediately ruin your computer, but habitual lap usage can shorten the life of your machine.

Every business is striving to grow, but with growth comes new challenges like hiring new staff. If you have a growing business model, then you likely achieved this by adopting smooth procedures. The same principle applies to growing your staff; and with solid on boarding procedures in place, you can get more performance out of your staff.

The recent tile interface overhaul of Windows 8 is groundbreaking enough to spawn entirely new computer designs and devices. The Windows 8 interface makes a desktop PC feel more like a mobile tablet, therefore Sony took the next step and combined a tablet and a desktop with the Vaio Tap 20.

How many different programs do you have open in Windows right now? Three? Five? More than ten? The more programs you have open at once, the longer it takes to close everything down. And what if you find yourself in a storm and need to shut down everything before a power outage strikes?

Over the past two decades, the Portable Document Format (PDF), developed by Adobe Systems, has become the industry standard for clean and secure documents. There are many PDF-viewing applications available across the various app markets. However, you can't go wrong with Adobe's sleek-looking and versatile PDF reader, Adobe Reader X.

Are you ready for Halloween? Beyond having a cute costume picked out; we want to know if you are prepared for a disaster brought on by ghosts, ghouls, goblins, or ogres. Battling the dark legions can escalate quickly into a full-blown crisis, and as your IT Company, we view it as our duty to help you prepare for the worst.

Have you ever been working on your computer when suddenly a wild error appears? If you need to better explain your problem to tech support, snapping a quick screenshot can be super effective.

The week before the launch of Microsoft's Windows 8, Reuters reported that many businesses view the launch as a non-event. Corporations are generally slow to adopt new systems, taking 12-18 months to first test a new platform before implementing it. Many businesses do not see any additional business functionality with Windows 8, and write it off as a consumer product.

October 26th is the launch of Microsoft's new OS, Windows 8, and the world seems disoriented at the dramatic overhaul of a traditionally predictable product. To make things a bit more confusing, there are actually 3 different versions of Windows 8 being released. You should know the differences between each one before purchasing your next Windows operating system.

Does it sometimes feel that business is going well, yet your bottom line is taking a hit? If time is money, then downtime is anti-money, and downtime may be your biggest budget buster. To help you determine exactly how much your IT downtime is costing you, we have two mathematical formulas you can apply to your business.

Earlier this week we talked about ways to shave your IT budget by combining your servers with a process called virtualization. This can equal big savings when you are running multiple single-task servers. Another way businesses can save money is by migrating their entire server infrastructure to a managed cloud environment.

Using a strong password with complex combinations of letters and numbers will go a long way in protecting your account, but passwords provide only one level of protection against hackers. Additional levels of security can be added with multi-factor authentication. This is the best protection available for your internet accounts, and major technology companies have recently made this a reality for the public.

Even if you've never used an iPhone, you've probably heard of Siri, Apple's personal virtual assistant. Siri is one-part novelty, one-part geekiness, and actually pretty productive. She can answer questions for you, facilitate many features of the iPhone, and report notifications and updates to you. For those of us who love our Android devices over Apple's iOS, Siri makes us just a little jealous, that is until now.

Microsoft is gearing up to roll out Windows 8 on October 26th and if the early tests are any indication, the computing giant's latest operating system (OS) could change the face of cross-platform integration. There's always some consternation among business owners when having to decide to outfit their computers with the newest OS so here are a few things you should know about Windows 8.

Time is money. Benjamin Franklin offered up that poignant piece of business acumen in his 1748 pamphlet Advice to the Young Tradesman, Written by an Old One. Travel to the present day and it's one of the most frequent sayings used by businesses professionals. Attempting to find the highest degree of productivity is the goal for everyone that believes that the bottom line is, in fact, the bottom line. One expanding technology that is helping businesses increase efficiency is the Global Positioning System (GPS).

With all this talk about mobile devices like tablets, smartphones, and ultra-portable laptops, you'd begin to think that traditional desktop PCs are going to seem archaic. Depending on your needs, that can be the case, but desktops aren't going away anytime soon, and for good reason.

When budgeting, most businesses will look at ways to save by spending less on products and services, like downgrading to storebrand cola. These cuts are never popular and have been known to insight office mutinies, "Dr. Thunder, are you kidding me?" Before you deprive employees of premium products, first take a look inside your server, it may be full of savings!

It's the information age. If you are always on the go, or you work as a member of a team, it helps if your work is accessible remotely. The ability to have relevant files on hand is nice and at times can be essential to the welfare of your business. Below are a few cloud-based options that could offer you or your company a solution for your remote file access needs.

Last time, we spoke about password security, we went over the importance of using strong passwords to avoid identity theft. In part two, we will discuss three easy password solutions that can help you manage all of your different passwords.

A weak password makes identity theft easy for hackers. You would never paint your social security number on the side of a truck and drive around town, but if your password is shared, left out in the open, and used on multiple sites, then you might as well ride shotgun with the Lifelock CEO (his SSN has been stolen 13 times).

If you have ever been the victim of a computer virus or cyber attack you know how bad it can hurt. You know the pain of having your data compromised or even your business operation completely shut down. You feel violated, and to add insult to injury, you have no idea who did this dirty deed.

Stories about smartphones getting wet usually have a funny twist to them, unless it is your own device, in which case the story is comparable to a Shakespearean tragedy. Whether your toddler threw your iPhone in the toilet, or your Galaxy S3 took up swimming, there are a few tricks you can try before dropping cash on a new device.

In order to best serve their clients, companies need to have a comprehensive program in place to help them defend their systems from malware attacks on their company's infrastructure. These attacks can have a devastating effect on a business's continuity, so having an appreciation for exactly what types of adversaries your company is up against is important. There are several types of potential intruders that you should be aware of.

Ever since the first microfilm machine was rolled off the line 100 years ago, mankind has been striving to achieve the paperless office. If you are too young to remember using microfilm, think of an arcade cabinet, except, instead of Mortal Kombat, documents battle it out over a projected screen. Thankfully, we have come a long way in 100 years.

If Back to the Future's Marty McFly time traveled to the modern office, he would probably feel a little disoriented. He would see employees squinting at little televisions, mobile devices right out of Star Trek, and no rows of file cabinets. Then Marty would notice a fax machine and feel right at home, because fax machines have been around forever.

If you are reading this, then you obviously have an internet connection. Most internet users browse websites, check emails, and perhaps play a game or two, but if these activities are the extent of your internet usage, then you are missing out on a powerful, cost-effective tool called VoIP that uses the internet to entirely replace your old phone system.

If only spam were true. You would have thousands in unclaimed money, cute singles would be lining up to meet you, and there would be a magic pill that would revolutionize your personal life. Some spam is so ridiculous they are instantly deleted, others are more subtle and dangerous. Here are some threats to watch out for before you open that unsolicited email.

"Ahoy ye swabbies! We be takin' heavy damage on the starboard side! Brace ye-selves for impact! Arrrr!" That is pirate talk for "Hello fellow co-worker. Our CRM tools crashed again and IT needs to reboot the server." September 19th is Talk like a Pirate Day!

Are you looking for a new computer service provider? Deciding on a company to handle your technology is a choice that carries a little more weight than let's say, switching your cable provider. You are essentially giving this new computer company access to all of your company's sensitive information. No pressure!

September 21st is the official launch date for Apple's iPhone 5. In typical Apple hype, they officially released the specs one week before launch, putting an end to wild rumors and ruining underpants all around the MacHead community. If you are an Apple aficionado, upgrading to the iPhone 5 will be a knee-jerk reaction, but if you find yourself on the fence then check out what's new.

Everybody likes the free goodies in a hotel room, tiny shampoo bottles, coupons to nearby restaurants, and HBO top the list. Wi-Fi however, our favorite goodie, sometimes fails to make the complimentary goodie list. It seems a little messed up to us, that hotels (the place you work and sleep) charge you for Wi-Fi while Burger King gives it away for free, but we have found a Wi-Fi loophole to help you out.

Intel has been conducting experiments that would make electricity pioneer Nikola Tesla proud. Intel plans to get consumers charged up over their newest technology that will allow laptops to provide electricity to nearby smartphones without cables. Enough with the electricity puns - we're just ecstatic about this new technology!

Speaking to a crowd, especially one comprised of your peers or potential clients, is a nerve wracking experience. All too often, a speaker will put all his/her effort into a PowerPoint with graphics worthy of James Cameron or distracting animations that spin, sparkle, and pop. As the speaker, you're the focus. Here's a few tips to keep your audience captivated:

Dropbox, a popular file-hosting service for both home-users and businesses, recently added a new security feature to prevent unauthorized access to your Dropbox files and folders. You can enable Dropbox to send a security code to your mobile phone whenever you log in.

For sites you need to log into often, having your browser remember your password can save you time logging in, especially if you are using secure passwords that you might need to look up otherwise. There are circumstances where you might want to manage what personal information gets stored in your web browser.

We've all been there; dealing with long, annoying tech support, hoping to make that extended warranty worth while. Should you eventually speak to a human, you run the risk of running smack into a language barrier. Then, there is always the inevitable 'Did you turn off your computer and turn it back on?' Would you really be still on hold if you hadn't tried everything you could think of?

For small and medium businesses, attempting to fix your own computer issues can do more harm than good. It may seem like having to pay for IT services is an unnecessary expense, especially when you have a somewhat tech savvy employee who seems to know what they are doing. It may be an expense now, but it will save you thousands of dollars in time and money in the long run.

Social Media is a far-reaching, extremely valuable tool for advertising and marketing. That is, well... until it isn't. Being able and prepared to handle negative online criticism can be the difference between a small but unfortunate event your company can learn from and 'irreparable damage that your company may never recover from.'

QikPad is an online collaboration resource that enables users to produce, sustain and customize data in a collaborative atmosphere. Making use of author color codes, users can readily determine the root of modifications by identifying the particular color assigned to a specific employee. Best of all, the application is free and does not require any sort of sign up.

It's evident having a solid backup solution for your business data is not just important, but crucial in order to ensure the survival of your company in the event of a disaster. One backup solution involves using a magnetic tape medium to store data. Unfortunately, tape brings some inconveniences that make other solutions more appealing.

When making a tablet purchase for your business, there are many factors to take into account, such as portability, battery life, screen resolution and more. However, the most important factors are whether or not the device will actually help you get more done. Here are the Nexus 7 and Kindle Fire tablets side-by-side for your comparison.

As computer technology around us continues to advance, so too does the development of computer viruses, spyware and malware. The latest digital plague is called Ransomware, malicious software that takes over the hard drive of infected computers until ransom is paid.

First there were laptops/notebooks, then we saw the portable but not-so-powerful netbooks. Thanks to some new innovations by Intel, we're seeing a new class of laptop on the market that is both ultra-slim and ultra-capable.

If you use Microsoft OneNote for jotting down quick meeting notes, phone calls, and personal memos, you've probably had information you needed to share with other co-workers in your OneNote Notebook. This quick walk-through will show you how to set up a Shared Notebook that others can access and modify.

While it may seem difficult to imagine embarrassing oneself in the space of a 140 character message, Twitter has been responsible for the downfall of companies, politicians and entire institutions. No one can deny that Twitter has been a boon for communication, politics and economics, but some people seem determined to prove that one cannot have Twitter without the word "twit." Here are a number of prominent examples from the recent past which demonstrate how Twitter's logo can swiftly become the bluebird of unhappiness for some.

Whether using email for work or pleasure, it is important to ensure that we receive the messages we want while avoiding spam and other junk. Furthermore, it is extremely useful for your email to be presorted into the appropriate folder for review. Here's how to create filters for one of today's most popular email services, Gmail:

Everyone who uses e-mail has become accustomed to finding the occasional Spam e-mail. No matter how careful you are, it's only a matter of time before you receive a Viagra testing e-mail, the South African Inheritance Tied Up in Legal Battles, or the Winning of a Sweepstakes that you never signed up for. Where do those e-mails come from?

Companies such as Facebook, Google and Amazon are switching to Solid State Drives (or SSDs for short) in a push for greater performance with reduced operating and hardware costs. Reduced hardware costs? Yes, while Solid State Drives are more expensive than traditional hard drives, they afford certain advantages over the legacy storage hardware.

Does it seem like all of your technology is running a little slow at the office? Does it take longer than it should to copy files over, synchronize your inbox, and open up documents? It might not be your computer, but your entire company network causing slowdown for your entire staff.