What's Da Buzz?

Okay, this is as easy as it can possible get. I was digging around in my tech geek sites and came upon an invention that is starting to get known about.

Yes, I am writing about it so it will be known about even more now. For my Philippine readers or those with international connections, this one is a sweet tech that we now use. The item is called Magic Jack and it is replacing our Vonage account which we had used to trim down the expenses on the standard phone line.

This is not an ad but a declaration of why I love this thing. First, the ease of installation is a matter of 3 steps. That means I will not botch up the installation by not reading the directions. Next, you can take it with you to wherever you go. All you need is a computer with broadband and a telephone with a phone cord to jack into the Magic Jack and you are good to go. It doesn’t matter if I’m using the WI-FI at a restaurant, visiting the Philippines, Switzerland or my in-laws, I can bring the home phone with us.

Now here is the best part of it all. Your phone bills get reduced to $20 a year. It is $45 for the initial set-up and only $20 a year afterwards. That means I can easily afford to get and pay for one for my family in the Philippines, Switzerland and us here in the USA for only $60 a year. Heck, our lowered phone bills on the Vonage were over $400 a year. Sixty dollars so I can have unlimited contact with my family is a massive bargain.

This is a complete no-brainer for those who use their computers a lot and have broadband. We have ours and the signal is strong. I invite you to check it out. Sige na, Bili na kayo or sign up for their free trial!

Note: This is NOT a paid review.

Thank you,

Anah

Sometimes it can be rather funny when the real world meets up with the tech world in a way that points out the importance of a proper IT or web hosting infrastructure.

What event am I referring to? When Sen. McCain announced Gov. Palin as his VP candidate, it lit up the Republican base and so many others so much that his website was flooded with visitors. It was so flooded with visitors that the server crashed. I have heard of this happening a few other times before but never in politics.

Such an event does beg a few questions from a technical geek’s point of view? What web hosting medium did he use? I would hate to hear a Federal server crashed so I will go with one of the other companies that are out there as a guess.

According to chart on web hosting ratings, many of the options provided guarantee unlimited space and unlimited traffic capabilities. As a blogger, we wish we had the traffic to crash the server of our web host. So my curiosity is still on which company or government entity had their server crash? Obviously, it is straining the claims of unlimited space and traffic.

However for the rest of us mere mortals with blogs and normal websites, we need to read up on our web hosting tutorials. Another helpful guide are web hosting awards given out for the best companies out there for the needs of a consumer.

It is always a good thing to do your research and unbiased review websites are a useful tool in our bag of information gathering tricks. Perhaps someday I will get all of the Filipinos of the world visiting my blog every day. I know I am wishing but one needs to set their goals high.

But we all have to start at the beginning of the process of growing a website. An argument for cheap hosting can be made but as in all things it is a buyer beware. It can definitely be done and especially in the beginning when the dollars are tight. Just hope you don’t make it big too fast or you may test the ability of their servers.

Anah

In this post, I will highlight an option to reduce some of the travel expenses incurred by businesses. Times are tight for all courtesy of gasoline prices having a direct impact on the expenses category and the bottom line or the profit margin.

So how do you control some of those expenses? There are three words that can directly address the gasoline expense. Those words are cheap web conferencing. Why incur the travel expenses when you can use a desk instead?

But that is not enough by itself as a number of companies offer web conferencing. Instead small (50-100 users) and medium sized companies (up to 499 users) need to look at all ways of saving money. A significant expense for most companies is the IT department. Technology continuously changes and improves as does the software. The budget for the equipment, maintenance and the installation phases with all of their problems can be minimized.

The process is known as software as a service or SaaS. It is a heaven sent business option for those companies who only want to worry about monitors, mice and hard drives crashing and not servers, software and more. What is it basically? Quite simply, it is renting the software that rests on software you need to run your business. No worries on a hardware or software crash. That is not your headache but theirs.

Additionally, TFS or hosted team foundation server brings out the full flexibility of your company by connecting up employees from various locations without sacrificing any degree of control. What a better way than to let some employees work from home and save on the gasoline prices and not commute.

Anah