December 2011 Newsletter
VOLUME 1,
ISSUE 7
Inside This Issue
- Windows 8: The Sangam of Power and Simplicity!
- Getting to Know: Amanda Tevis
- Great Ways to Go Green!
- 5 Ways to Streamline your Virtual Environment
- 3 Tiers of Local Web Marketing
- December Quiz - Win Chipotle!
- Customer Profile: STS, Ltd.
- Referral Program
- Valuable coupons
The word confluence is known as sangam, in Sanskrit, the language I learned in school in India. Triveni Sangam, the confluence of three rivers: Ganga, Yamuna and the mythical Saraswati, takes place in the southwestern village of Uppinangadi in the town of Allahabad that is located in the state of Uttar Pradesh, India. Tamil Sangams were legendary assemblies of Tamil scholars of poets in the remote past. Sangams had power.
Lovers in India like to think of sangam as the confluence of man (the river Ganga) and woman (the river Yamuna). One of the most famous Indian movies starred Raj Kapoor, the legendary Indian actor, and was about love and it was titled Sangam. In time, Sangam became associated with a simple thing like love.
When Sangam originated, it had power. Eventually it became simple.
So what has the Computer Corner to do with sangam? Confluence! Windows 8 combines Power and Simplicity like I have never seen before in my 22 years of being a computer industry analyst! I was in AWE when I saw the superb presentation delivered by Microsoft’s Steven Sinofski at the Build Windows 2011 Conference on September 13, 2011! The 90-minute video can be viewed at this link.
Background
The Personal Computer, or "PC," from any vendor, such as Apple, HP, or other; represents power. Smartphones such as the iPhone, Android Phone, Blackberry Phone, and Windows Phone; and tablets such as the iPad, Android tablet, PlayBook tablet, and the forthcoming Windows tablet represent simplicity.
Remember how much the first PC's cost? Yes, several thousand dollars! With the passage of time, the PC now costs an order of magnitude less and delivers power that is an order of magnitude more. Similarly, the mobile phone has become far more compact and powerful.
As hardware becomes more powerful, one operating system is likely to emerge, in my humble opinion, that will tap that power for both types of users, those who need power and those who need simplicity.
How Windows 8 Delivers Power and Simplicity
To accommodate power users, Windows 8 delivers the same desktop experience you now have in Windows 7. Windows 7 users will be instantly comfortable with the Desktop interface in Windows 8. To accommodate users who need simplicity, Windows 8 offers the Metro interface. You access the Metro interface by either flicking the right edge of the tablet and touching the Windows icon, or by hovering the mouse to the lower left corner pixel of the screen and clicking the Windows icon. When you boot Windows 8, it welcomes you in the Metro interface, you click the Desktop tile to switch to the classic Windows interface. I expect all computer monitors in a couple of years, by the time Windows 8 goes mainstream, to have multi-touch capability. So what is the Metro interface? If you’re a Windows Phone user, you will recognize its Live Tile interface—that was originally developed by Microsoft for its now defunct Zune MP3 player—instantly. In it you have access to purpose-specific simple apps, such as Stocks, Alarms, Weather, News, Tweet@rama, Piano, and hundreds more. To navigate to productivity applications from Metro, click the Desktop Live Tile.
Need a more comprehensive list of features in Windows 8? Click this link.
I have been working on a Windows 8 computers at home and work exclusively since the Developer Preview was released in mid-September and I am impressed with its stability and richness of features. In mid-October I added the Acer Iconia W500 tablet running Windows 8 to the list of computers I use daily. I now have access to my Kindle and Nook books on the same tablet; no more Nook for Barnes and Noble eBooks and no more Kindle for Amazon eBooks. I can finally get rid of the multiple eBook Readers (Kindle, Nook, Sony eReader) I own, should I want to!
Conclusion
I am convinced that Windows 8 tablets are likely to dominate the burgeoning worldwide tablet market because users demand choice and Windows 8 provides it like no other operating system: Power & Simplicity!
Wish to form your own opinion about this? Microsoft has made the Developer Preview of Windows 8 available for download to the general public. Download it from this link, spend eight weeks with it as your primary operating system and let me know whether you agree. I look forward to hearing from you.
About the Author
Ranjit has been writing on computer topics since 1987 and has authored five books on CAD (MicroStation and AutoCAD). His next book (sixth) is on success in life and business (Be-A-Teacher.com). He is the founder of RAM Corporation, a licensed Professional Engineer and the Chair of the American Society of Civil Engineers National Capital Section's (asce-ncs.org)
Quote of the Month
“Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.”
- Mahatma Gandhi
Getting to Know:
Amanda Tevis is the newest member to the RAM Consulting Corporation family. She joined the corporation on November 21, 2011 as the company’s Marketing Coordinator. She supports marketing and sales activities for our government and private sector divisions and coordinates our proposal development and submittal efforts.
Amanda enjoys shooting photography in her spare time and working out with her outgoing gym buddies! Her passions are as diverse as she is, and include the container store, photography, reading, art, fish oil pills and family!
News and Tips of Interest
Great Ways to Go Green!
Ever thought of ways that the IT industry and professionals can go green? Candace Labelle has outlined
informative steps that CIOs can take to eliminate this growing problem in the IT industry, in her article for Computer World magazine.
E-waste policies
Implementing effective policies at all stages of a asset’s life cycle, can minimize and manage e-waste.
Purchases
When making IT purchases, give consideration of how disposal of those products will be managed. This can greatly reduce e-waste and handling costs.
Reduce
By adopting purchase polices with staying power in mind, CIOs can extend asset life cycle by simply using equipment longer.
Reuse
Try buying purchases that allow for mixing and matching of components. This will extend life cycles and reduce e-waste.
Recycle
CIOs can contract with companies that collect surplus equipment, follow secure data-wiping processes, and refurbish equipment.
Community outreach
CIOs can use their influence to reach out to employees and members of their communities and educate them about the need for waste reduction. Employees can also play a big role by thinking about ways to reduce e-waste at all stages of the asset life cycle, including initial requests for equipment and maintenance.
5 Ways to Streamline your Virtual Environment
Jake McTigue an IT manager and writer, highlights the following 5 ways to simplify your virtual environment, in Information Week magazine.
1. Keep them separated:
Split virtual machines into test and production resource pools. This will reduce the number of unnecessary virtual maintenance on production servers and help assure that resources will be available when there’s a failure.
2. Plan for failure, test the plan:
It is essential to test your HA environment. Systems fail! A high-availability architecture is supposed to serve as a bridge so that critical systems can continue to run in the face of a problem. But HA systems require maintenance; ignore them, and they may not be there when you need them!
3. Get ahead of the business:
Don’t honor business units requests to provision a new application without considering other options. The key here is timing! Bottom Line: Make sure IT is part of any application discussion from the start!
4. Improve visibility:
One way to gain insight into your
infrastructure is with a network management system that enables automation. This will check for IT-defined variables and taking actions based on certain conditions.
5. Consolidate and automate:
As the server matures, the focus is shifting from pure consolidation to automation. This means that API scripting is becoming important to automation and the need to strengthen these coding skills in the future is essential.
3 Tiers of Local Web Marketing
Allison Hown associate editor of Website magazine, gives much needed informative insight into local web marketing, in her article “Three Tiers of Local Web Marketing.”
Tier One: (Local Search-based Advertising) According to a recent study, 85 percent of consumers research products or services online before they make purchasing decisions. This concludes that local business owners should aim to position themselves within the online channels providing search functionality to end-users. The most valuable options for their ability to drive results are from Google (Places) and Local.com.
Tier Two: (Daily Deal Promotions) For local businesses that seek a more aggressive approach, consider advertising in white-hot daily deal market. Daily deal sites have risen in popularity, Groupon and Social Living are two of the most successful. Allison does note: To be prepared for the increased business that can result from a successful promotion, but the risk can be a great way to convert one-time visitors into long-term customers!
Tier Three: (Local Meets Social Advertising) Social media sites provides businesses with an extremely large audience. In addition, they are relatively inexpensive for small local businesses. For instance, Facebook allows a business to choose their budget as well as define which audience the ad will reach, such as location, interests and age.
Ace our December Quiz to Win $20 in Chipotle!
Yes, you could win a $20 gift card to Chipotle! To win you must have received this newsletter from us, or be forwarded this newsletter by someone on our mailing list. Submit the correct answer to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or click here by September 30, 2011. One winner will be randomly drawn from all correct entries received. The winner will be featured in the next month’s issue.
Congratulations to Robert Zacherl of Street Traffic Studies, Ltd.! our November Quiz winner! (Correct Answer was: "All of the Above")
December Quiz Question:
What do best practices dictate when implementing backup?
A. Perform on premise image backup of server.
B. Perform on premise file/folder backup.
C. Perform offsite backup.
D. All of the above
Customer Profile
Address:
400 Crain Highway, N.W.
Glen Burnie, Maryland 21061
(P)410.590.5500|(F)410.590.6637
www.streettrafficstudies.com
Formed in 1977, Street Traffic Studies, Ltd. is an outstanding engineering consulting firm that specializes exclusively in Transportation Planning and Traffic Engineering. Street Traffic Studies Ltd. has expanded from an initial one man operation to a full service company with offices located in Anne Arundel County, Maryland. Combining the talents of professional traffic engineers, highway engineers, transportation planners, and technical design staff, Street Traffic Studies Ltd. performs a broad range of services for both public and private sector clients. Street Traffic Studies Ltd. Is a highly specialized firm that strives to perform quality, professional work and exceed established schedules and budgets.
“We have been extremely pleased with the professional support RAM has provided over the years whenever we needed help with technology. At about the same time when we had them replace our aging server ( which they also installed and maintained) with a new one in early 2010, they were getting ready to introduce RCare Solutions, a technology management plan that included server and computer monitoring with service delivered almost instantly using their remote service delivery tools. We have been using this service since then, have had terrific response, and it provides me with a real peace of mind knowing they are providing all of our technology support.” David Nelson, PE, President, Street Traffic Studies, Ltd.
RCare™ Solutions Referral Program
We will pay you $25 for anyone that you refer to us that we get an appointment with. When your referral becomes a client (and has spent $1,000 or more) then we will pay you an additional $50. And, we will give your referral a true $100 off their purchase.
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RAM Consulting Corp - 21525 Ridgetop Circle, Suite 270 Dulles, VA 20166-6510. ph +1 703-766-2820