Odiogo: the web read for you

Odiogo is a new free service that voices the contents of your blog posts for your readers. Kind of a reverse Dragon Dictate (speech recognition software) where your speech is translated to text by your computer. With Odiogo, you write and it reads your content, and best of all it converts posts to podcasts so your readers can take your content with them...

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Netbook: taking the plunge.....

In December of 2008 the display on my trusty Gateway laptop broke. So I connected it to an external monitor and a TV for a while, but then I had scheduled roadtrips and presentations coming up. My Gateway would no longer fit the bill and I didn't particularly like lugging a laptop around anyway. I had tried working off my phone for several years (just not there yet), so I thought I would try a netbook. I choose the Acer Aspire (1.6 ghz Atom processor, 1 gb ram, 160 gb hard drive, svga external display, 3 usb slots, ethernet rj-45, wireless b/g, sd memory card slot, microphone/heaphone jacks, built in camera, and ms windows xp home edition). Right price, right functionality....

I initially thought the keyboard was a little small, but after a few days I was comfortable with it. I loaded up the Aspire with my favorite Opensource applications (AVG free anti-virus/anti-spyware, ZoneAlarm firewall, Scan2Pdf, PDF995, CamStudio, Audacity, VNC, Skype, Spybot S&D, ZipGenious and Secobackup) and I use Google's Gmail, Calendar, Docs that live in the cloud.

Am I using the netbook as my main computer, yes, and it is working very well.

I would recommend it for any business traveler (battery life is about 3 hours) and definitely for students. At a price of $329.99, the Acer Aspire netbook is a very good value. You can purchase a netbook from Amazon (your favorite electronics website) or your local computer store (if they are still in business)......

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Health Status Dashboards for Google Apps and Amazon Web Services

Both Google Apps and Amazon Web Services provide Health Dashboards for their services that allow you to see the status of services on a current and historical basis.

These Dashboards are valuable tools for businesses that use Google/Amazon. Use them to ensure SLA's or to investigate historical availability if you are considering Google/Amazon cloud based services.

You can find these dashboards at:

Google Status

Amazon Status Read more ...

Bandwidth: are you getting what you paid for?

You've signed a contract with an ISP for a 10 mb data service with an SLA at 99.999 uptime, but is it really a 10 mb service? Perhaps over time it seems to slow down, and you only hear about it when someone calls to complain. So how can you ensure SLA's and get what you are paying for?

To start, make sure that your ISP provides you with SLA reports on quarterly basis at minimum. However, as the old saying goes, "Trust but verify".

The following are several tools that can assist you with metrics and historical reports about bandwidth usage.

Free tools to historically report on bandwidth usage:
MRTG - Monitors SNMP network devices (in this case your router)and paints a picture of the traffic usage on the device.

PRTG - Monitors and Classifies bandwidth usage on SNMP network devices and paints several pictures of what is occuring.

ISP SLA Monitor - Uses Cisco's Netflow Data records to present usage information. (note: while this tool is standalone and free, it is used to upsell you to Solarwinds Network tools).

Free tools to measure bandwidth:
DSLReports - Test your bandwidth speed, perform a through line test with this free service.

MLAB - While this set of watchdog tools has been created to look out for number 1, once again Google has created a service that is certainly going to keep the ISP's on their toes. Measure bandwidth, troubleshoot a connection, check to see if BitTorrent is being blocked, etc....

As well, if you utilize a multi-homing device i.e. XRoads, Elfiq, Fatpipe, etc, check if they have any SLA tools built in to their products (I know XRoads does....).

Bottom line, there are several options to help you ensure that you get what you pay for..... Read more ...

Deliver Guest Room Wireless over existing in room ethernet cabling

Do you need to deliver wireless and already have an ethernet cable in your Guest Rooms?

Tired of having to deliver wireless access points for your customer Meetings at the last minute?

Using HDComm's HD24613 wired/wireless jack you can deliver "Wi-Fi" to any area you have an existing ethernet cable. The HD24613 requires an ethernet cable and power over ethernet. If you don't have POE enabled switches, no worries, each jack comes with a power injector.

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Internet Phone Service for small business that saves you time and money....

Internet Phone Service for small business
The RingCentral virtual phone system with a Toll Free 800 or Local phone number delivers all the power of a “big company” system but with no hardware to buy and nothing to maintain. It’s an ideal telecommunications solution for mobile professionals, home offices and small companies.

Set up in minutes
When you sign up for RingCentral, you immediately get your own Toll Free 800 or a Local Area Code phone number that serves as your business’ “front door” – Or, you can transfer your existing phone number into RingCentral and enjoy the same features that help you effectively manage your business communications.

Now you can answer calls on your existing mobile, home and office phones, or even on your PC. You can also use RingCentral to send and receive faxes, automatically route calls to any member of your team regardless of their location and provide callers with an auto-attendant (e.g., “Push 1 for sales, 2 for shipping, 3 for billing,” etc.) and a dial-by-name directory.

The new way to manage business communications
Best of all, you can set up your virtual phone system online in minutes, all by yourself. You don’t need to have an engineering degree, and you don’t need any hardware. And your RingCentral virtual phone system can scale to meet the needs of your business as it grows.

You can put the power of RingCentral behind your business for as little as $9.99 a month. There are no long-term commitments and no cancellation penalties. RingCentral even offers a free trial so you can try out the service for yourself. RingCentral is the first virtual phone system developed specifically to meet the needs of small businesses and mobile professionals. Try it for free – it’s the powerful, cost-effective new way to manage business communications! Read more ...

Jott: Turn your words into actions

How do you keep track of tasks and items to follow up on?

Do you..... stop and write a note, send an email, capture a voice memo

Why not simply Jott.....

Jott is a service uses voicemail transcription, simply call the Jott 800 number to capture thoughts, create to-dos and set reminders with a simple phone call. You can even post to Twitter or Facebook.

Jott, easy to use communications for people on the go.....

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