There is no question about it.  Sometime in the not-so-distant future, tablets will replace traditional laptops.

 To those of us who are “Trekkies”, the concept is no stranger. We have all seen Jean-Luc Picard carry a slim tablet that was obviously used as a PC.  Without doubt, this was what inspired Apple visionary, Steve Jobs (the idea of an iPad actually predated the idea of the iPhone).

 So, when will this happen, and what advances need to take place before they happen?

 I would start with integrating some sort of holographic keypad into the device.  Although you can already purchase holographic keyboards such as the Celluon laser keyboard (http://www.virtual-laser-devices.com/), it is an external device, and somewhat defeats the whole idea of having a tablet.

 With the integration of a keyboard, I would like to see a mouse.  Easy enough, the New iPad (commonly called the iPad 3) already supports Bluetooth 4.0 technology, as do many Droids.  Just a few tweaks of the OS and we are off and running.

 We know there are apps for the Droid OS, such as Kingston Office.  We know there are strong rumors that Microsoft is coming out with an Office suite for the iPad (and may be out by the time this article is published).

 Next I would think about storage.  As great as the iPad is, I am frustrated that Apple has yet to add SD Storage capability to the iPad.  The one thing we have learned is that storage is easily filled.  Have you heard about Parkinson’s Law, which states work will tend to expand to fill up the time allotted for its completion?  Well, back in the very early 90’s a colleague of mine, Malcolm Oglesby, had his own spin on Parkinson’s Law which he called “Oglesby’s law”; that is, “data will tend to expand to fill up the space allotted for its storage”.

 So there we are.  The technology exists.  The portability of a tablet is obvious.  Now all we have to do is wait for the manufactures to put it all together…

Millions of people watched as the space shuttle Atlantis finished its final voyage a week ago. This moment concluded the American space shuttle program however the program leaves a legacy behind that won’t soon die out. Countless technologies that enhance our way of life owe their invention to the space program. We see it inside our homes, hospitals, cars, as well as on vacation.

Most people think of rockets, spacesuits, and Dippin Dots, the ice cream of the future, when they think of space shuttle technology. You might be surprised to learn just how many things would not exist if it weren’t for NASA’s drive to better the space shuttle program. Check out NASA’s annual publication, Spinoff, its goal is to inform the general public about technologies developed or commissioned for the space shuttle program which have been commercialized.

It may surprise you to realize that if it weren’t for the development of space shuttle technologies, these things might not exist:

Athletic Shoes – Many are made employing a method called blow rubber molding which was designed to produce space helmets. This allows companies to make soles hollow and fill them with a shock absorbing substance. Nike Air is probably the most commonly known shoe making use of this technology.

DustBusters – NASA commissioned engineers at Black and Decker to formulate a cordless power drill to use for moon landings. The technology is really a software program that allows motors to perform well even when using hardly any power. Black and Decker then expanded this and gave us the DustBuster.

Smoke Detectors – These were originally developed in 1970 for America’s first space station, Skylab. They are now so vital in households that it is against the law to construct a residence without installing a functioning smoke detector.

Human beings have forever been moved by the thought of exploring space. The drive to do so has inspired incredible technologies. Although the space shuttle will be greatly missed, NASA will not stop creating new technologies that people will find a way to implement in a more terrestrial fashion. As we think about all the ways everyday life has benefited from the space shuttle program, we see that it will live forever within our homes as well as our hearts.

Business cards are an essential and longstanding cornerstone of effective networking. The format is as standard as the medium, a small stock-paper card with basic contact information and, if you’re feeling saucy, a witty catch phrase. However, more and more creative thinkers are handing out extremely memorable business cards that toss out old networking conventions and replace them with unforgettable innovations. The very standard of what is and what is not a business card is changing. If you’re looking to improve your networking skills by creating a business card that will have people talking, think about a few of these creative techniques.

Add Texture

This is one of the most basic ways to make your business card more memorable. Adding texture to a card engages the sense of touch in a dynamic way, creating another layer of memory in the brain. It may sound silly, but if your business card has an intriguing texture, then the brain of the receiver will have one more thing to notice. Check out this great example.

Make Them Share-Worthy

Hand out a card that people will want to discuss with their friends or hang up on a wall at work. A simple and intelligent design on the back might just inspire others to show it to their coworkers. For example, take a look at this great mustache design on the back of a particularly fun business card. This sort of design will have people holding the card up to their face and, in turn, sharing it with others. Check it out here.

Make Them Digital

Who says a business card has to be a card? Why not go green and implement digital business cards by developing QR codes instead? QR codes are a popular trend among tech-savvy smart phone users. Demonstrating the ability to use this technology effectively will impress your audience, making your business card (and more importantly, your business) more memorable. Here are some tips on using QR codes.

Creating a business card is only limited by your imagination. Making your cards unique will make them more effective networking tools. For more tips and tricks on making business cards, make sure to read this article.

As technology develops, the definition of team is evolving. These days it is common to see people from different time zones and different countries collaborating as a team. More and more companies are applying the organizational strategy of virtual teams, also known as geographically dispersed teams (GDT). You have probably heard the term but are not sure if it fits your business model.

A typical business misconception is that output is a result of being in close proximity to a manager or team. Companies are realizing that productivity is instead a result of the abilities and compatibility of team members and that performance can be measured by the quality of the results of the team. If a team consists of individuals that are motivated by personal career success and advancement, they are personally invested in the work they are doing. People who are inspired by the desire to avoid being reprimanded are apt to have very little personal investment and will probably not push themselves. Virtual teams are often comprised of the former; because of this they can be powerhouses of efficiency and productivity.

In many businesses, virtual teams are not feasible, as certain tasks require physical interaction to accomplish. However, many businesses where this is practical are embracing this reorganization of teams. If you are considering virtual teams as a strategy, here are a few advantages and disadvantages to contemplate.

Advantages

• Recruitment based on competence not proximity
• Team members are able to work during the times when they perform most effectively
• Teams consist of members that are self-motivated and self-driven
• More accommodation for team members’ personal and professional lives
• No commuting time or cost
• Reduced overhead, because there is no physical location
• IT expenses are decreased as most teams use web-based tools for collaboration
• Managers can better examine the team’s performance as there are less social pressures

Disadvantages

• Less social interaction, which can be a demotivator for many people
• Loss of trust between team members if there is not guarantee that everyone is pulling their own weight
• Creativity might be stifled, as the physical dynamics are lost
• Team members may overwork themselves as managers can not physically see the length of time each task takes
• Managers may lose track of the team’s progress, i.e. out of site out of mind

Online technology is the primary way that virtual teams interface with each other, including email, audio conferencing, and file sharing programs. Here is a list of a few websites and products that facilitate teams that interact virtually.

• Go to meetings – an inexpensive way to have remote conferences
• Yammer – a exclusive social network for businesses that allows quick communication and interaction
• Drop Box – a free way to share files
• Second Life – allows for interactive meetings with the use of avatars

If you want more information on virtual teams in action, look at the articles below: 
http://www.theanywhereoffice.com/mobile-work/telework-viritual-teams-midmarket-companies.htm
http://www.forbes.com/2010/08/19/virtual-teams-meetings-leadership-managing-cooperation.html
http://www.openforum.com/articles/7-effective-tools-for-managing-a-virtual-team

Are we in the midst of a 1990s-style tech bubble? Some analysts think so.

Try this: Head over to Google News and enter a search for ‘tech bubble.’ You’ll get a large amount of results. Fresh results.

But let’s pause for second. What, exactly, is a tech bubble? Here’s Investopedia’s definition:

“Tech Bubble – a pronounced and unsustainable market rise caused by increased speculation in technology stocks. A tech bubble is highlighted by rapid share price growth and high valuations determined by standard metrics like price/earnings ratio or price/sales.”

Hmmm. Are we able to find evidence of speculation and inflated valuations?

Scanning the current headlines, we now have stories of acquisitions and IPOs (and impending IPOs) for a variety of hot domains, including LinkedIn.com, Pandora.com, Groupon.com, Zynga.com, and Twitter.com. And there are at the very least eleven billion reports and blog posts about Facebook’s eventual IPO.

If we’re in a tech bubble, it certainly has a social-media flavor!

So. Of these hot companies, how many are profitable? (This helps us gauge whether their valuations are inflated.)

• LinkedIn – Earned $12 million in 2010 (its first year of profitability).
• Pandora – Not profitable.
• Groupon – Same story.
• Twitter – A little!
• Zynga – Way profitable! With a 35% profit margin in 2010.
• Facebook – Quite profitable. With a respectable 25% profit margin in 2010.

Of course, just because a number of of these companies aren’t very profitable doesn’t mean they’re not brimming with profit potential. Look at Amazon.com. Launched in 1995, the business didn’t make money until 2004! But last year the company’s net gain was well over $1 billion and it is now threatening Walmart’s retail dominance.

In other words, a lack of profits today doesn’t a bubble make (necessarily).

And as Mashable columnist Jolie O’Dell notes, today’s tech climate is much different than those heady days in the late 1990s and early 2000s, when you had hundreds of startups with half-baked ideas and flimsy business plans getting crazy opening day valuations. In 1999, the peak of dot-com mania, there were 308 IPOs. This year, by contrast, there have been 25, and several of which have been mature businesses with healthy revenue (e.g. LinkedIn).

O’Dell notes another key difference between now and then: Internet usage. Back in the 1990s, relatively few individuals were online. According to the Pew Internet and American Life project, Internet adoption has just about doubled among adults since 1999. Today 77 percent of American adults are online. Among teens, the number is more than 90 percent.

In the dot-com era, investors swooned for companies that didn’t have any users. The users weren’t even there. Today is unique. Examine Twitter. Sure, it has struggled to turn a profit, but at least it has a large, influential and expanding customer base. You couldn’t say the same for Pets.com, one of the biggest flops of the dot-com era.

But it’s still hard to say with certainty whether today’s excitement is rational or irrational. Again, return to Google News. You’ll see good arguments on both sides…

QR codes have been appearing in more and more settings lately. Maybe you’ve seen them on the side of buses, on posters, in magazines, or even on business cards.  These sophisticated bar codes were first implemented to track car parts, but have recently been valuable in generating brand awareness and loyalty.

What is a QR Code?

    A QR, or Quick Response code, is a multi dimensional version of the common barcode. Much like the common barcode, a QR code is readable by a scanning device.  As smartphones are able to scan these codes, QR codes have become an important tool for interactive and very targeted advertising.

    When you scan a QR code using your smartphone, the web-enabled information that is embedded within the code is activated, allowing your phone to then navigate to the information intended by the code’s generator. It’s a similar technology like a barcode at a grocery store, except the QR code is complex enough to carry much more information.

How are QR Codes used in Business?  

    Generating a QR code is simple. All you have to do is enter the information you wish to be accessed into a QR generator. There are several free generators on the Internet.  A good one to start with, if you’re considering making your own code, is the Kaywa generator.

    Once you have the QR code, you can publish it on any print media or online. Making a QR code available allows a person with a smartphone to scan it and access the information stored within.

Why it works

    QR codes are a great way to build brand loyalty because it adds a special value to the data, making accessing a fun experience for the user. Even though QR codes are a new marketing strategy in the Western World, they have been used to grow business for over a decade in Japan. If you’re looking for a fun and simple way to create interest in your business, consider giving QR codes a try.

QR codes have been appearing in more and more settings lately. Maybe you’ve seen them on the side of buses, on posters, in magazines, or even on business cards.  These sophisticated bar codes were first implemented to track car parts, but have recently been valuable in generating brand awareness and loyalty.

What is a QR Code?

    A QR, or Quick Response code, is a multi dimensional version of the common barcode. Much like the common barcode, a QR code is readable by a scanning device.  As smartphones are able to scan these codes, QR codes have become an important tool for interactive and very targeted advertising.

    When you scan a QR code using your smartphone, the web-enabled information that is embedded within the code is activated, allowing your phone to then navigate to the information intended by the code’s generator. It’s a similar technology like a barcode at a grocery store, except the QR code is complex enough to carry much more information.

How are QR Codes used in Business?  

    Generating a QR code is simple. All you have to do is enter the information you wish to be accessed into a QR generator. There are several free generators on the Internet.  A good one to start with, if you’re considering making your own code, is the Kaywa generator.

    Once you have the QR code, you can publish it on any print media or online. Making a QR code available allows a person with a smartphone to scan it and access the information stored within.

Why it works

    QR codes are a great way to build brand loyalty because it adds a special value to the data, making accessing a fun experience for the user. Even though QR codes are a new marketing strategy in the Western World, they have been used to grow business for over a decade in Japan. If you’re looking for a fun and simple way to create interest in your business, consider giving QR codes a try.

More and more important decisions are being made through e-mails, full conversations are being composed in text messages, and families separated by large distances are staying connected by video chatting. Technology has grown to be a new language, one we are still learning to use effectively. There have been obvious benefits to the age of connectivity, but there are also negatives to consider. This blog will take a quick look at the pros and cons of staying connected through technology.

The Pros

• Being connected means being safe. Roadside disasters, unpredictable heart attacks or sudden illness are all situations that can benefit from early notification. Increased connectivity makes contacting help easier and more reliable.
• Staying in contact is now as easy as clicking a button. Ask any soldier deployed over seas and they’ll tell you that staying in touch with their families is now easier than ever. Sending a message takes only a second thanks to highly advanced Internet connections and international bandwidth.
• Technology has made offices portable. Everyone knows at times the travel to work can be difficult. Thanks to telecommuting, working from home while sick or on personal leave is as simple as opening up your laptop.

The Cons

• Connectivity is hard to turn off. We all appreciate being in touch, but sometimes we need alone time. Being constantly accessible makes disconnecting extremely difficult. This negatively affects our ability to stop and smell the roses and enjoy our surroundings.
• Always being connected promotes over-working. While telecommuting helps redefine your workspace, it also blurs the line between private and professional life. It’s important to know when to disconnect, so having your entire office available on a laptop can make that choice a difficult one.
• While connectivity can be hard to break, it can also encourage us to detach from those close around us. While technology has helped to make communication possible at a remote distance, it’s also made personal connections easy to ignore.

The age of connectivity has altered the way we communicate. The key to keeping ourselves in check is remembering to interact with these new experiences with moderation. We all have to strike the balance between inadequate and too much connectivity.

For more information on connectivity, as well as an interesting look at unplugging yourself from technology, take a look at this article. 

After years of expectation and premature announcements, the tablet revolution is finally here. And it’s maturing: the innovative fervor is now sweeping business.

That’s right, business. It turns out that these gadgets are more than just shiny toys for wasting time. Large and small organizations in practically every industry have hopped on the tablet bandwagon. You can now see these devices in hospitals, archaeological sites, police patrol cars, and even theaters of war.

In July, Infoweek ran an interesting story about how a prestigious New York City law firm deployed hundreds of iPads to its team of lawyers. The firm, Proskauer Rose LLP, presents a good case study on the benefits and difficulties associated with handheld computing in a business environment.

“Rolling out the iPad actually turned out to be quite a significant investment in time, much more than I would have thought,” said Steven Kayman, chair of Proskauer’s technology committee, in an interview with Infoworld. “There’s just a hundred decisions that have to be made along the way.”

Breaking trail is always fascinating but rarely simple. Proskauer’s technology leaders had to address thorny issues that were totally new, such as how (and how much) to standardize the app menu on each device; how much control to give to users; and how to prepare for the impact on their network, particularly its security posture. (Whenever you add hundreds of new endpoints to a network, you add hundreds of potential entry points for hackers and malicious code.)

But the firm has seen big advantages, and it doesn’t appear to be looking back. Infoworld:

“Today, greater than 500 Proskauer lawyers use iPads to create superslick PowerPoint slides, Excel spreadsheets filled with sky-high figures, and verbose Word documents. Lawyers pass this electronic paperwork back and forth among clients. They even present information on their iPads to judges.”

The iPad is the clear leader in the tablet realm, but tech watchers expect Android devices and others to gradually gain market share, as they have done in the mobile phone space. New entrants are expected to drive prices down, further encouraging business to join the action. A March 2011 study from AMI-Partners predicts that tablet adoption will grow 1000 percent by 2015, with 1 in 3 SMBs eventually using them on a daily basis.

I guess tablets are easy pills to swallow…

Traditional spamming consists of sending out an extremely high frequency of emails from a spam-hosted account. In the early days of the Internet, the was an extremely profitable, though illegal, business model. However, the Internet has developed to a point where this practice is no longer viable. This doesn’t mean the Internet will soon be saved from spammers, but rather that spamming will soon take on a different form. The most important question is, why has traditional spamming declined? The second is, how will spam change to adapt to the new Internet.

Profitability

    In 1997, spamming was an extremely profitable business. However, in the past 14 years, the Internet has become an increasingly difficult place for spammers to navigate. The amount of hardware and time needed to run an active spamming business outweighs the profit. This means that spamming is more expensive than it’s worth and, with all things considered, a business model that manages to lose money. Currently, traditional spamming would pay less money per hour than a minimum wage job.

    While traditional spamming is no longer worth the money, spammers are a crafty bunch, known for adapting to new environments. In what ways will spammers change in order to once again make money?

Smart Spam

    Conventional spamming was known for mass emails. This is a kind of blunt force approach. Now, these messages are sent subversively. Spammers are beginning to utilize classic hacking techniques. Legitimate email accounts are being hacked, and lower frequencies of spam messages are being sent from them. This technique was recently used on actor Simon Pegg, causing over 1 million recipients to receive a spam link from one of his accounts.

    While there will always be a security answer to new spamming techniques, the best way to protect yourself is through personal diligence. Always be wary of a suspicious link, even if it is sent from a trusted account. Be mindful of any suspicious Internet activity that you encounter and do your best to stay ahead of spammers’ tricks. For more information on how spamming is evolving, make sure to read this article.