Ribbon Cutting for American Kenpo Academy

Technology Seed welcomes the American Kenpo Academy into the park. Congratulations!

Twitter is developing an app to display your precise whereabouts when you tweet.

During the height of the Iranian election protests, one idea that floated around the Web urged Twitter users to change their locations to Tehran so that it might throw off Iranian government officials looking to crack down on locals Tweeting their dissent. Someone pointed out, however, that if it were that simple, wouldn't it make more sense for the people who were actually in Tehran to change their locations instead? more . . .

Interested in the security of your personal information on Facebook quizes? You should read this . . .

(Originally posted on the ACLU of Northern California’s Bytes & Pieces blog.) Ever whiled away five minutes on a Facebook quiz, finding out what cartoon character is your look-alike or how your IQ stacks up? These quizzes may seem like a perfectly harmless way to spend a few spare minutes. But have you stopped to think about what these quizzes are learning about you and how that info could be used? Take our quiz and learn more! more . . .

Should you be compensated to use your Smartphone or Blackberry after-hours?

Should you be compensated to use your Smartphone or Blackberry after-hours? Some employees are suing for that . . .

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124986371466018299.html

Interesting read.

Summer Rewards - 10% per Hour Paid to YOU

Technology Seed is offering a reward for warm leads!

It couldn't be easier! You provide us with as many warm leads as you'd like and we'll follow-up with them. When we win the account, we pay you 10% of the accrued labor cost for 1 year.

10%, per hour, per month for any lead that turns into a customer. There is no minimum and no maximum.

That's it.

Leads are valid for IT Support (Networking), Business Phone Systems, Website Design.

Not-So-Fine Print: We pay you when the lead pays us. This offer is for warm leads - don't open the phonebook and send us random names. We've got that covered. Offer only applies to labor charges. Limited time offer is valid for leads provided on or after August 4, 2009.

For more information, email ksimione@tseed.com or call us 603-537-2700!

Continuous Data Protection

Technology Seed™ offers business-class Continuous Data Protection (CDP) Solutions for business.

Our CDP backs up your company's data in realtime. No more changing tapes. No more going to a backup from 24 hours ago - the CDP backs up data in real-time, as you change it.

Accidentally delete an Excel doc? Word doc? Picture? Email? We can get back the version you saved 5 minutes.

Along with the local copy at your office, the data is stored offsite, at TSeed's offices in Londonderry, NH, for disaster recovery (fire, flood etc.).

Should disaster strike your facility, we'll keep a real-time, up-to-date copy of your data at our facility.

For more information, email ksimione@tseed.com or call us 603-537-2700!

Secure / Encrypted Email

The number of emails sent over the internet grows each day. Likewise, the number of email sent containing sensitive information grows each day. The safety of the information sent over email is becoming a very hot topic at businesses – especially those transmitting sensitive information, legal information, business secrets, etc.

There are already legal requirements for some medical organizations that transmit sensitive patient information. Surely, as the internet continues to develop, and abuses continue to grow, you’ll hear more and more reports of stolen email, stolen information, stolen passwords, breaches of email security and so on.

Securing email has become easier. There are devices that we can easily insert into a business network that will encrypt email leaving the building. Encryption makes the email and its contents unreadable to anyone but the end user – the end user that has the correct “key” to decode the email. Called Secure Mail Gateways (SMGs), the devices analyze all email leaving the building and encrypt any email that we tell it to. You can encrypt all email, just email from certain users, or emails from any user on an email-by-email basis.

The appliances, once setup, run themselves and require very little maintenance.

Have an IT question? Email questions@tseed.com – we’re happy to help! Past Articles: tseed.blogspot.com

Kurt Simione is the owner of Technology Seed, LLC (www.TSeed.com). We provide IT Support, Business Phone System Support and Website Design to businesses across the country. 603-537-2700.

Network Vulnerability Assessments

We've been doing network vulnerability audits for a long time, but never really got around to publicizing it. Recently we've had LOTS of call for thsi service.

You can read about our network vulnerability assessments and reports, but in a nutshell, we go through your entire IT infracture and tell you what's secure, what's not, and how to fix it.

It's that simple.

We'll provide you with an easy-to-follow, detailed reported telling about the vulnerabilities, how signficant they are, and how they could affect you.

Of course, we'll be there to help you fix the holes, should you need it.

Ask Technology Seed: Domain Names

Ask Technology Seed

Technology Seed supports the computers and networks of business and home users. Many business owners own the domain name relevant to their company (i.e. tseed.com). However, anyone can register a name for their own use (as long as no one else owns it and there are no trademark issues). Why would a private individual register a name for non-business use?

Consider this: Most of us do a lot of communicating via email - for work, for play, for family matters. Some of us are on it all day long. Suppose you have a comcast.net email address. If Comcast decides to change their email addresses (they get bought by another company, for example – remember Adelphia?), your email address changes and everyone that has your old address needs to start using your new one. This is often confusing and results in lost email.

Suppose you register a domain name for your family (simione-family.com, for example). You own that domain name and, as long as you own it, it’ll never change. You and your family can use those email addresses (name@simione-family.com) forever and not have to worry about them ever changing.

Web Hosting goes hand-in-hand with registering a domain name. When you register the domain name, you now own it, but it doesn’t “do” anything yet. You need to order web hosting, as well, in order to actually use the name for emailing etc.

What’s the cost? While there are many places you can register domain names, GoDaddy.com is a fairly inexpensive option with decent support. Registering a domain name is $9.99/year. Web Hosting (which is the service where you’ll setup your email addresses) is roughly $5/month. It’s not quite free, but not too bad if you have several family members who would like personalized, non-changing email addresses and wouldn’t mind splitting the cost.

Have an IT question? Email questions@tseed.com – we’re happy to help! Past Articles: tseed.blogspot.com

Kurt Simione is the owner of Technology Seed, LLC (www.TSeed.com). We provide IT Support, Business Phone System Support and Website Design to businesses across the country. 603-537-2700.

New Website Release: www.InformedMedicalDecisions.org

Technology Seed announces a newly launched website for the Foundation for Informed Medical Decision Making. Check it out HERE.

Ask Technlogy Seed: Netbooks

Technology Seed supports the computers and networks of business and home users. Netbooks are an interesting breed of laptop. They are typically ultra-portable and ultra small. They are fully capable, though not fully featured. It’s a delicate balance. Read on.

The term “netbook” essentially describes a laptop designed to surf the net, more or less. They aren’t full of bells and whistles, but they are inexpensive and contain everything you need to get online, check your email etc. Some have webcams built-in for those IM video-chats.

Size: Netbooks are designed to be very light and very small with screens as small as 8”-10”. If you have bad eyes, a screen that small might be difficult to look at. But, the small size and light weight (some are around 2 pounds!) make these computers very easy to tote around, travel with, use on your lap, etc. Keep in mind, the small size also means a small keyboard. These units are not a joy to type on. While they are certainly usable, if you do lots of typing, you’re going to want something a bit larger (or you can purchase an additional USB keyboard).

Features: Netbooks are missing some familiar features. Most don’t come with CD/DVD ROM drives which makes it difficult to install software from CD, watch a DVD movie, burn a CD etc. However, you can purchase an external USB drive or share a CD/DVD drive from another computer on the network. Consider, though, that many software titles nowadays are downloadable directly over the internet. You can download Microsoft Office directly from Microsoft’s website.

Price: The price is the nicest feature of these units! You can buy a fully functional netbook for as little as $275! That’s a fully functional computer for < $300 – that’s awfully hard to beat. At that price, they nearly become throwaways (or hand-me-downs) after a year or two, if something goes wrong.

We use a few of these units at Technology Seed. The price is tough to beat and the portability is unmatched. Stop by the office if you’d like to see one.

Have an IT question? Email questions@tseed.com – we’re happy to help!

Past Articles: tseed.blogspot.com

Kurt Simione is the owner of Technology Seed, LLC (www.TSeed.com). We provide IT Support, Business Phone System Support and Website Design to businesses across the country. 603-537-2700.

Music-On-Hold, Business Phone Systems Online Store

Technology Seed has launched a new online store for Music-On-Hold and Business Telephone devices. Our MOH devices are priced VERY aggressively - Check it out!

Ask Technology Seed: VPN

Technology Seed supports the computers and networks of business and home users.

What is a VPN? VPN stands for Virtual Private Network. VPNs give us a way to connect to the information at our office when we’re not there. With the popularity of high-speed internet access in homes, VPNs, in recent years, have become a very popular means of getting work done on the road.

There are two main types of VPNs. The first is a Remote Access VPN where one computer is “dialing” into the corporate network from a remote site (home, hotel etc.). All that’s required is a fast internet connection at both ends (corporate network and remote user) and some setup. In this scenario, a user connects to the VPN, accesses the information they need, and disconnects.

The second type is a site-to-site VPN. A site-to-site VPN allows you to connect two entire networks together over the internet. For example, if you have offices in Houston and Boston, a site-to-site VPN connects all of the computers together all at once. It’s an “always-on” connection – there is no dialing-in and disconnecting – the two (or more!) networks are always connected and can access information from either office.

Have an IT question? Email questions@tseed.com – we’re happy to help! Past Articles: tseed.blogspot.com

Kurt Simione is the owner of Technology Seed, LLC (www.TSeed.com). We provide IT Support, Business Phone System Support and Website Design to businesses across the country. 603-537-2700.

TSeed's New Ad Spot

Technology Seed launches it's new advertising campaign with a 60 second ad spot on WTKK 96.9 FM (Boston). Listen to the new spot HERE!. As always, we appreciate your ongoing support and business. Kurt Simione www.TSeed.com

Website Release: IMEC

Technology Seed is proud to announce the launch of it's newest website design: IMEC (www.imecamerica.org).

IMEC is a non-profit, volunteer-based, 501(c)(3) organization whose mission is to provide doctors in developing countries with quality medical equipment to improve health care for the poor. For the past 14 years, IMEC has worked with over sixty other humanitarian organizations to revitalize hundreds of existing, impoverished hospitals with donated surplus medical equipment and supplies that are organized into complete medical departments, delivering them to over seventy countries around the world.

Looking for help with your next Website Design Project? Contact us at www.website-design-boston.com.