Hot Buttered IT

Twitter’s popularity has skyrocketed, but I find it useless.

Everyone is jumping on the Twitter bandwagon these days. I’m jumping off. I was late jumping on since I thought it was a passing fad with limited amount of use for my business. In the past 2 months, Twitter is in the news daily. Lots of interesting stories about how “so and so now ‘tweets’”, and how a Taco truck in Los Angeles has created a frenzy using Twitter. So, I jumped on the bandwagon to see what I was missing. Now I can say “Been there, done that”.

So why do I find Twitter of minimal value? Every day, you and I are bombarded with emails (business and personal), Facebook requests, RSS updates, podcast updates - you name it. And let’s be honest, we only have so much time in a day to dedicate to work and family. Twitter is just another piece of technology vying for our attention. It dawned on me how useless Twitter was when I was subjected to hundreds of Twitter updates offering no interesting or compelling story or value. One individual was head of social media for a large software company. Do I really care how she is spending her weekend, evening, or what she is eating for dinner. NO! Or how about a podcast directory website that constantly lists each new podcast listed! Then there is the Vegas specialty sites competing with each other to blast the world with headline news from Vegas. Useless for me, and likely for most people.

I know, I know, call me a ranter. My point here is that Twitter offers minimal value. Are there people or businesses using Twitter successfully with compelling stories. You bet. But don’t be fooled because a Taco truck in Los Angeles has 10,000 followers. Like any other marketing success, Twitter offers value to only a small niche of the population. That’s why I will discontinue using Twitter, not read new Tweets, and continue to focus my marketing efforts elsewhere.

Is Twitter a passing fad or here to stay? Let me know what you think.

-Simon

Tags: Social Media by simon
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Learn how to schedule an auto start for your PC without using
Wake on LAN.

In my previous article, I discussed how to calculate how much it is costing both you and your company leaving your computers powered on. I also showed you how to calculate potential savings by reducing the amount of time the computer is powered on. But leaving an organization’s computers powered off creates a quandary for I.T. staff. What about the need to remote to that computer to install software? What about the need to push out important patches and updates?

Well, one option is to purchase a utility that uses the Wake on LAN feature to automatically start the computers at a pre-scheduled time. Those of you not familiar with Wake on LAN, it uses a special network packet, the Magic packet, to send a signal to your Magic packet compliant network card. When the network card receives this packet, it automatically powers on the computer. Sounds great, doesn’t it? Well, you may discover that pushing out a Magic packet through versus subnets may not work according to plan. And, there is the cost of the software to do this. I’ve tried some free products but they were manual start ups one computer at a time, and not viable for a complex network. [Read more →]

Tags: BIOS, Hardware, Money Saving Tips, Utilities by simon
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Learn how to save significant amounts of money by turning off your personal or business computers. Also included is the cost calculation to determine how much money you are wasting by leaving your computers powered on.
 

Reducing the amount of time your computer is powered on increases the lifespan, saves you money, and reduces the amount of harmful CO2 in the air. Talk about win-win-win! Most organizations and a lot of consumers leave their computers powered on 24/7/365 (24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year). Many of you may wonder how much electricity you are using and what the cost is on an annual basis. 

Just how much power does your computer use? That is not an easy answer, but if your computer is 3 years old, it is likely using on average 120 watts of power. While new computers may use less, a high end graphics card and other add-ons will boost the power usage. Do not confuse your power supply rating with power usage. If you have a 400 watt power supply, this is only peak amount of power it can dish out, and not actual power usage. [Read more →]

Tags: Environment Friendly Tips, Money Saving Tips by simon
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You may have noticed that I reposted the Asterisk videos. However, I decided to transcribe everything so you could also review the notes. I know a lot of people still like having printed documentation in front of them.

I have a bunch of new video tutorials arriving. The 10 part video series on Audacity is nearly done. Subscribers to the free Hot Buttered IT newsletter have already viewed the first 4 and the feedback has been incredible. These videos may surpass the Asterisk videos in popularity. I’ll get the Audacity videos posted eventually, just not exactly sure when.

I have some other cool videos coming soon – just need a few hours of quiet time to complete them.

Are there any tech videos you would like to see?

Talk to you soon.

-Simon

Tags: News and Updates by simon
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Asterisk Video Tutorials - Additional Resources and Conclusion

Wrap-up, sites to look for information and help

OK, lets do a wrap-up of what we have learned through our videos.

First of all we’ve learned what is VoIP and all that buzz around, we got introduced with asterisk and what can it do for us about VoIP.

Next, we’ve learned about how to install asterisk on linux systems along with some basic asterisk’s command line features and dialplan options. We also talked about setting up new extensions  using configuration files and about different actions you can do with calls in your system. [Read more →]

Tags: Asterisk, Open Source, Telecommunications, VOIP by simon
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