Internet Addiction

Do you think that you are addicted to the internet? At what threshold does it start looking like addiction? I use the internet all the time for VoIP service conversations so my time online comes in around ten hours a day. America’s first hospital-based “internet addiction” rehab program opened over Labor Day weekend at Bradford Regional Medical Center in Pennsylvania, and while that debut highlights the pervasiveness of the net in our everyday lives, experts are still debating whether the lure of social media or online gaming actually constitutes addiction. This is idea of a rehab is almost laughable because there are so many other variables that need to be considered before labeling someone with an internet addiction. If you really find that the internet, internet fax, and emails are interfering with your life, you should try taking small breaks where you are completely disconnected for a period of time. How attached are you to your phone services?

Annoying People on Facebook

There are millions of people using Facebook so there is a great chance that there will be a couple that are very annoying, especially with the introduction of internet phone services. One of the most obviously annoying people are the ones that post all the time and too much information. No one cares what you had for lunch or dinner or wants to hear about your doctors appointments. Also, people need to stop oversharing their location. Either you're trying to attract a stalker or you're trying to level up in some bizarre video game version of your life. Thanks for alerting us of your stops at the taxidermist, foot massage kiosk, psychic, cactus nursery and restroom. As far as pictures go, no one wants to see you without a shirt unless you are Matthew McConaughey. Better yet, please no selfies. What irritates you about people using Facebook?

Technology Eras

I am sure that you all have heard about the CEO of Microsoft, Steve Ballmer, stepping down from his position. If you have not delved into the articles with about 100 different angles, I can spare you the details and break it down. First of all, there are plenty that describe how the exit was sudden and just as many that say it was planned and in the making for several years. Other go on to describe and debate whether he was the worst or the best CEO. It is definitely a mixed record as far as most are concerned. PCs have had an era and it is coming to an end with mobile applications and smartphones right behind to take its place. The world is far better off than it would have been if Microsoft had managed to stay on top forever as it had with the PCs. What do you think about his exit and him as a "visionary" in general?

Everything is Recorded

Sometimes it is great to be able to record things such as the instant replay in sports or for surveillance purposes. Other times, being able to record everything seems to take away from the moments. We worry about losing our privacy but there are a lot more aspects of life that we will lose if everything is recorded. Thanks to our near-endless access to digital recording devices, the less-than-Hollywood version of you will be immortalized on the home computer, or stored for generations in some digital computing cloud. Wearable devices like Google Glass with its internet phone services are only a hint of what is to come — ever smaller and cheaper, and tied to inexpensive digital storage. Records of voices and events will be a permanent part of the Internet the way text is already, held forever and searched, mined and inspected. Casual conversations and off-the-cuff quips are about be put through the data blender, scrutinized and organized and pumped through algorithms in search of deeper meaning. Is this the direction that we want to be going in as a society?

Why Internet Phone Interviews Are Not Cutting It?

For the millions of 2013 college graduates, how many of you have found a stable job in what you went to school for? Also, just how many interviews have you had? More businesses are moving to having interviews using internet phones as a way to save money and time. When investing in people to work for your company, there could not be a worse idea. The employees are the ones that can really make or break a business so it is important to spend a lot of time and resources on finding the right people that can move your company up. When the company opts to interview someone over IP telephony, they miss out on the key indicators of a personality: the body language. The employer will not be able to fully assess the candidate because they will only be seeing them from the waste up and the dynamic of the interview is completely different. How do you feel about internet phone interviews?

Keeping Information Safe

Do you realize just how much information there is about you on the web at this very moment? What is more shocking is just how much people are willing to pay for it. We all know that when using passwords, you have to use different one for every account. In reality, it is nearly impossible to remember every single unique password. The solution? A password manager of course. It will not only remember all your passwords, but will generate super strong and unique ones and automatically fill them into login fields with the click of a button. LastPass is an excellent and free choice. “What is your mother’s maiden name?” or “In what city were you born?” are common questions websites often ask you to answer so as to supposedly keep your account safe from intruders. In reality, there’s nothing secure about such generic queries. That’s because someone who wants access to your account could easily do some Internet research to dig up the answers. Not sure you can remember your lies? You can create “accounts” in your password manager just for this purpose. All of this goes for internet phone services as well because there is nothing worse than someone sending messages on your behalf.

Video Conferencing Growth

The number of telepresence rooms installed at companies worldwide has grown from an estimated 2,000 at the end of 2008 to about 7,000 today. Although most of today’s multi-screen, high-definition audio and video systems are used privately by vendors for “in-person” meetings, hotel chains and conference centers are also embracing telepresence so that business customers can collaborate over a converged network. Video conferencing solutions are also gaining traction with an estimated quarter-million units being shipped per quarter. Despite this impressive turnaround, the difficulties of interoperability and protocols continue to negatively impact widespread telepresence and video conferencing adoption. Today’s increasing demand for interoperability among key market players like Cisco, Polycom, Microsoft is easy to understand. People want to be able to use any device or platform that they want in order to conduct their business in order to increase efficiency and not worry about the technical problems associated with trying to integrate systems.