technology | Fire Boy and Water Girl Play

Lucille Wood
estate
technology
July 29, 2022
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Technology in Real Estate – Out With the Old

It’s time to take legacy solutions like BacNet, Modbus, LonTalk, etc… out of base buildings…forever. While every other industry on the planet has standardized around Internet Protocol (IP), and gained the benefits of open communication, information exchange, and technology that gets more functional as it becomes less expensive, the real estate development and property management industries have standardized around antiquated, limited technologies that are only utilized in their vertical.
Walk into the headquarters of every manufacture of legacy base building solutions and you will find that 100% of them run their mission critical business systems on an IP network with current web enabled applications. Why, because there are no Modbus phones, no LonTalk high density storage devices, no BacNet computers etc… These solutions are based on technologies (ARCnet, Token Ring, RS-232 etc…) that have long been abandoned by mainstream global communications. They were abandoned because they are too slow and too limited in their interoperability to be practical.
That is why in today’s “speed of business” & “on demand” world… property management is still reactive, driven by individuals utilizing “paper in binders” to get the job done. They don’t have the tools that every other industry has.
The returns in construction costs and long term operational & energy savings are available today. The IP solutions for base buildings have been around for years, tenants are demanding more, it’s now time for owners to get involved and challenge the construction industry to stop building and retrofitting facilities with technologies that were obsolete before they were installed.…

Lucille Wood
information
outsourcing
July 22, 2022
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Outsourcing Information Technology – What is It?

Information technology (popularly referred to as IT) is an important aspect of doing business now. With a whole lot of consumers taking their business to the internet, outsourcing IT really does make a lot of sense, because IT experts are in huge demand in a lot of industries. In addition to this, a lot of functions of information technology can be managed much more affordably if tasks are outsourced to independent firms and individuals instead of utilizing in-house providers.
Outsourcing information technology projects take place in a lot of industries due to a lot of factors. First and foremost, this helps to control the costs associated with IT projects, this can be quite expensive to manage by on-site employees, who have rather limited resources, equipment and of course time. When information technology requirement change or the budget is limited, outsourcing information technology helps to save money and resources.
One other good reason why IT outsourcing is used by a lot of companies is because of time factors. Having an additional IT support that works for 24 hours a day and 7 days a week on a project will of course help improve the chances of getting the project done in a timely fashion. In a lot of cases, this can really speed up the time needed in order to complete a project by vital deadlines.
Most times, software or web development projects become quite complex, which will necessitate the extra support of IT experts who are known to specialize in much more difficult projects. Outsourcing information technology is used by a lot of organizations that are limited in handling complicated or new processes. A project may be a lot more effectively performed by certified IT experts who can work round the clock in order to address much more difficult aspects of the task. Sometimes it might take months to accomplish a particular task with an existing in-house information technology team.
One of the pretty good reasons for using IT outsourcing is to be able to also adapt fast and affordable demands of customers. If an organization wishes to compete in the market today, the organization must be able to make improvements and changes quickly so as to still retain customer loyalty. Today, customers in general demand a very fast response, services and products that will address their immediate needs and cheaper solutions to their problems.…

Lucille Wood
audiovideo
displayport
July 21, 2022
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DisplayPort Extenders Replace HDMI Extender And HDMI Switch Technology As Audio/Video Standard

DisplayPort extenders and switches are rapidly becoming the industry standard for extension of audio and video production as well as in personal computing graphics. The most current evolution of this cutting-edge technology is marked by recent advances in DisplayPort technology that give all DisplayPort extenders the highest bandwidth on the market of any available audio/video repeater- whether DVI, or HDMI extender technology.
DisplayPort extenders are poised to take audio and video signal data further, faster, at a higher resolution, and with less signal loss than ever before! This means that DVI and HDMI extenders are possibly reaching the end of their product life-cycles.
DisplayPort Achieves 70% Greater Bandwidth over HDMI Switch/HDMI Extender Options
DisplayPort extenders are capable of carrying more bandwidth than any other legacy DVI or HDMI extender options available, up to 17.28 gigabits per second (gb/s) in the current generation, 70% greater bandwidth than the highest generation HDMI switch specifications. DVI components face the limitation. Even the value-oriented first generation DisplayPort standard is capable of delivering speeds up to 8.64 gb/s.
DVI and HDMI Extenders Have Lower Bandwidth
By comparison, the final generation HDMI extender has a maximum throughput of 10.2 gb/s, and the value-oriented first generation HDMI extender specification tops out at just 4.95 gb/s. Value-oriented first generation single link DVI cable is also limited to only 4.95 gb/s. The most expensive dual link DVI extenders are capable of data transfer at maximum speeds of 9.9 gb/s, whereas single link DVI cable is even slower. Value-oriented single link DVI cable is limited to only 4.95 gb/s. DVI and HDMI switch speeds are identical.
DisplayPort: Most Recently Updated, Here to Stay
Second generation DisplayPort 1.1a was released in November 11, 2009. Second generation HDMI was released on June 22, 2006. The HDMI switch is unlikely to receive any major upgrades in the near future due to initial bandwidth and technical design parameters. The same goes for HDMI extender technology.
Perhaps most unfortunately for DVI technology die-hards, the consortium of tech companies that first came together to establish the DVI standard has since disbanded. There will be no future updates to DVI.
DisplayPort Primary Features
DisplayPort 1.1a has all the great technical specifications of DisplayPort 1.0, but with perhaps the greatest advantage over legacy HDMI switch and DVI switch support- DisplayPort is designed to carry audio and video signal over fiber optic. A DisplayPort fiber optic switch should outperform a typical DVI or HDMI switch.
What this means is that for the first time ever, production companies and techno geeks alike are now able to enjoy sending audio and video signals over long distances with minimal signal degradation. While typical HDMI switch and HDMI extender brands pay a royalty fee to the licensor, DisplayPort is an open license technology, (with the exception of HDCP digital rights management), and is royalty free.
DisplayPort Becomes New Graphic Standard
Graphics standards in video cards and monitor displays are migrating rapidly towards DisplayPort due to its billing as the highest bandwidth and most current technology. By 2013, many of the world’s primary computer vendors and display makers including AMD, Dell, Intel, Lenovo, LG, and Samsung will feature DisplayPort as their primary audio and video display technology, with HDMI offered as a legacy carryover. This may buy time for HDMI extender and HDMI switch makers, but DVI vendors will be out of luck.
Many other industry heavyweights including computer vendors- Apple, Acer, Fujitsu, Hewlett-Packard, Toshiba; and graphics and display makers- Asus, ATI, Matrox, NEC, NVidia, Pioneer, Philips, RealTek, and Viewsonic have already started retailing dozens of new products utilizing the new DisplayPort standard.…

Lucille Wood
gaming
motion
July 7, 2022
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The Wii, Motion Technology and Gaming

On November 19th 2006, Nintendo changed the face of gaming by introducing motion technology to games consoles. This allowed for a whole range of different games which required a completely new type of gameplay. Instead of bashing buttons on a normal controller, gamers were given a remote. The remote’s movements are picked up by a sensor, allowing the Nintendo Wii to monitor and record the movements of the gamer. Virtual technology has been showcased in several futuristic films but the Wii was our first taste of motion sensor technology and a taster of things to come.
Before the Wii, no console had developed the technology to take advantage of motion sensors to monitor our movements. The Wii signalled the start of a new type of gaming where your actions could be imitated on the television screen right in front of you. They used this type of technology to develop many simple games such as Wii Sports, which has many short activities such as tennis and bowling. Since then, Nintendo have introduced many more games that require you to use the remote in completely different ways compared to a standard controller.
The main difference with the Wii is that it can require you to be much more active. With standard controllers, you can sit down and not move for several hours whilst gaming. With the Wii, some people prefer standing up as this gives them the room to perform a particular movement. This type of motion technology has attracted different types of people with the elderly being reported as enjoying a bit of Wii action in retirement homes.
This level of popularity has not gone unnoticed, which is evident with Xbox and PS3 releasing their own versions of motion technology. Xbox released their Kinect sensor in November 2010, where no controller was used in conjunction with the system and their main motto was ‘you are the controller’. The Kinect sensor is able to pick up your body movements without the need for a controller and it also incorporated hand movements to scroll through menus. This is very impressive technology and is a sign of the future.
PlayStation followed suit by releasing the PlayStation Move controller in September 2010. This is similar to the Wii remote as you have to use the controller to monitor your body movements. It received impressive reviews with many praising its accuracy and how it has been used to develop motion-based gameplay.
Nintendo started everything back in 2006 but the competition have raised the bar in terms of motion technology with more accurate and innovative products than the Wii. With the 4-year gap between release dates, this was inevitable but in 2012 we will see whether Nintendo can raise their level to continue the good work started by the Wii.…

Lucille Wood
business
estate
June 24, 2022
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How to Integrate Technology Into a Real Estate Business?

Real estate has been one of the most profitable and sustainable business. People have become very rich through real estate dealing. Real estate agents use a lot of ways to ensure that they succeed in increase their business. Large businesses with a lot of real estate agents also use different tactics to improve their sales. Large property dealers often spend a fortunate of their earnings on training their sales staff for increase in business. They often however, overlook the fact that technology has been making a greater impact on our lives. This underestimation in role of technology brings a lot of problems for the old style real estate business people. First of all people have started using technology to locate the properties in any country of the world. Secondly, people use internet more then the physical resources to gather information and intelligence.
Search engines have change and there has been a new term coined, known as “social search” which is done through the online social networking sites. People now use technology extensively for all the purposes. Using technology has changed the way things are done for good. The first thing is to use technology for your online business presence. You can get your website designed specifically according to your demand for your real estate business. This would help you establish your online presence.
One other very important way to use technology is to have laptop along with you. Your laptop should have some arrangement for electricity as well as internet. Taking the laptop will help you make presentations to any new client and you can also add to it a lot of useful information, which you won’t be able to remember otherwise. It is also a good practice to find your way through and also the property details through the different internet applications, in case you have problems in finding directions. These are some of the very important technology uses you can have for your real estate property. If you are thinking about the possible benefits then you must rethink. Now people don’t use internet as a luxury in their businesses any more. They use internet to get their hands onto the latest information available so they don’t loose their edge over some other businesses already using technology to their advantage.…

Lucille Wood
developments
latest
June 22, 2022
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Latest Technological Developments in Web Technology – Ajax and Ruby on Rails

Anyone who closely follows the developments in the Web Technology trends will know that call of the day is Ajax and Ruby on Rails. And, today the buzz word is the customizable online message processor. It is an open source and web based message life cycle management system that can be used for software development projects.
This tool provides basic message life cycle management functions that may include the regular add, edit, delete, review and other functions. Some of the current functionality include:
1. Content validation that is rule-based to validate the input as per the pre-defined rules. As a result, the inputs that do not comply with the rules will not be saved in the system.
2. Each individual can make modifications and enter comments.
3. It allows you to import or export XML directly into your software.
4. Can be modified easily to best meet your project requirements.
5. Can be deployed as a web application easily.
This tool has been built on Ruby on Rails, which is a strong framework for developing the web applications. The Customizable online message processor can be extended or customized as per your specific needs. It also provides easy way to manage the database related design and helps you to track the complex database transactions.
It can also be used for the development of product specific requirements like user authentication and other related applications.
As we enter the Web 3.0 era, there are many other upcoming apps under rapid development, and they will hit the market pretty soon. So, keep an eye on the release of the latest open source projects in the world of web technology.…

Lucille Wood
fruitful
internet
June 17, 2022
0 Comments

Internet Technology Lessons for SEO – Fruitful for Online Marketing

Despite the fact that there is a great probability of butting heads with tens of hundreds aspiring and well established entrepreneurs, many young minds still find online marketing an appealing business to engage with. This may be because of the fast gaining prospects of common people for getting quick information about any attribute of their life. Plus, online business is worth to start your career without having a lot to spend.
An online marketing involves Search Engine Marketing (SEM) that is reinforced by the highly productive method of Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Therefore, to juice out desired output from SEM, there exist some pre-designed yet effective method based on internet technology that help to improve SEO activity.
You can use following internet based techniques to enhance your SEO process:
Blogging – Blogging is strongly relevant to SEO friendly technical writing that allows you to create interest in both the visitors and search engines for your company. As well as this comprises other link building activities such as blog commenting and micro blogging that tie the blog site up with more effect and more traffic. Furthermore, in developing blog content, you can write about interviews or about other known blogs or bloggers so as to make the page more informative and trustworthy.
Social Media – Social media allows you to build up and expand your network so you can reach more people and generate more traffic. Social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Skype along with other communication mediums, dominate the social media scene in terms of building contacts and online advertising about the products and services of a company. So, you can use them while considering SEO. Social networking is actually great to use in promoting a business as it exposes it to a network that makes it to be more patronized. Apart from this, video marketing also contribute high in link building strategy. So, you can pour video ads about your company or website on Social Networking Sites nd thus, make it online visible to attract more visitors.…

Lucille Wood
education
integration
June 15, 2022
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Technology Integration in K12 Education in Taiwan and the United States

Taiwan has earned a reputation for being one of the leading countries with advanced technology industries. High tech gadgets and devices are affordably available all over the country. Technology has simply fascinated the population. But is this technology being integrated in the classrooms? Are high tech gadgets and computer based technology (Computer Based Technology) being harnessed effectively for classroom use?
In a study made by Yi-Wen Hung and Ying-Shao Hs of the National Taiwan University in 2007 entitled “Examining Teachers’ CBT Use in the Classroom: A Study in Secondary schools in Taiwan”, it was found out that most Taiwanese teachers are using computers a lot but mainly for accessing the internet, writing documents, sending emails but hardly for teaching related tasks except for grading.
Similarly, in the United States, a study made by National Center for Educational Statistics in 2009 revealed that while 97% of teachers surveyed have access to computers in the classroom, most of them (66%) use it for research.
There are teachers who even believe that students spend more time with high tech gadgets such as iPods, wii and ps3 which they believe are distracting their from traditional books.
But computer based technology means more than making research work for teachers easier as well as being more than mere fun and recreational tools for student.
Educators are fast coming to the realization that CBT can be used to recapture the students’ attention and liven up their learning interest to what they would otherwise dismiss as dull topics.
Taiwan has been pouring resources to develop innovative classroom technology. In Nanhu Elementary School in Taipei, it launched a model of what they called eFuture Classroom incorporating a futuristic design equipped with computers and projection equipment. In Ren-ai Junior High, teachers use portable interactive eBoards instead of the traditional white boards. The eBoard is a large interactive display connected to a computer and a projector. The computer’s desktop is projected onto the eBoard’s touch screen surface where users can navigate the computer using a pen, a pointer or simply with the use of their hands. This alternative mode of teaching attracts and encourages more students to participate in class discussions and activities.
Technology and teaching actually compliment each other. Technology can have a profound impact on improving teaching. Educators must be able to understand and integrate emerging technologies and learn to integrate them into classroom use. Conversely, the popular use of a technology in classroom teaching can impact how technologies continue to take shape.
Most of our K12 students today have actually grown up as part of the digital revolution and can be considered ‘tech savvy’. The use of and integration of technology into classroom teaching would have a profound and successful effect. Cell phones, SMS messaging, cloud technology, and even blogging and social networks sites can actually be harnessed for classroom learning. Digital gaming and simulations can be explored for possible ways they can be used to reinforce learning.
The possibilities of using emerging technologies for classroom teaching is boundless limited only by how far a teacher’s creativity and imagination can go. However, because of the ease with which information can be had using such technologies, security concerns and child protection issues must not be taken for granted.…

Lucille Wood
computers
learning
June 11, 2022
0 Comments

Learning the World of Technology Through Computers – A Tutorial

Technology has always been a part of our lives, from building the first clubs and fires to the Space Age and the Information Age. We always learn enough about technology to use it as part of our daily living, but computer technology is one of the least understood parts of our existence. Therefore this series of articles will clarify some of the mysteries of computers.
What are the benefits of learning more about computers? If you are totally satisfied and have no frustrations with your computer, you are part of a very lucky minority! However, like every other type of technology, the more you understand it the better equipped you will be to handle the many issues that can arise. Knowledge is power, after all! You will be able to help yourself better with this information, and you will be able to help, and impress, your friends as well. So let’s dig into the insides of your computer.
This introductory article will talk about the parts of the computer, and the difference between the various parts such as hardware and software, programs and data and memory and storage. Future articles in the series will go more in-depth on these as well as many other topics. Questions and discussions from readers will also be addressed in future articles.
What do you see when you look at a computer system? The most basic modern setup will include four components; the computer itself, a mouse, a keyboard and a monitor. There may be many other additional components such as printers, modems, speakers, microphones, etc. Let’s start with our basic four component system.
It is helpful to consider this model of the computer: The computer itself computes information (processing); we have to provide information into the computer (input) in order to receive new information from the computer (output). Every piece of computer equipment provides one or more of these functions, input, processing and output.
A keyboard and a mouse provide input into the computer. After processing the information the results are output to a monitor or a printer. Some devices can provide both input and output. For instance, we can receive an email from a friend (input from the internet through the modem) and reply to the email (output to the internet through the modem). Or you can create a spreadsheet and save it to your hard drive (input data to the hard drive) and later open the spread sheet from the hard drive (output data from the hard drive). The modem and the hard drive are capable of both input and output, so they are known as input-output (I/O) devices.
Hardware is any device you can physically touch. Every device talked about so far can be physically touched. Software cannot be touched. It is the electronic information created by the flow or absence of an electrical signal. You cannot touch the programs or data used on your computer. You can touch and hold a hard drive, or a CD or a DVD, so these are all examples of hardware. But you cannot touch the flow or absence of an electrical signal, the zeros and ones that make up the binary world of computers. If you can touch it, it is hardware; if you cannot touch it, it is software.
Programs and data are both considered to be software, because they are composed of the flow or absence of electrical signals, the binary zeros and ones that computers process. The words programs and applications are pretty much the same; they are instructions that tell a computer what to do. The data you create might be a document, spreadsheet, graphic, or email.
All software, programs and data, are kept on the computer in one form or another. When you are working on a word processing document, for example, you have loaded the program (word processor) and data (document) into the RAM (Random Access Memory) of the computer. This is where it is kept while the computer is actively processing the information.
But what happens when you turn off the electricity to the computer? There is only an absence of electrical signal, which would be all zeros in the binary world of the computer. So we must have a way of storing the information so we can use it again later. This is why we use the hard drive. But the hard drive does not have electrical current flowing when the power is off, so it uses an equivalent technique. Like the cassette tapes of yesteryear, the hard drive has a magnetic surface that stores information.
Think of a compass, with North and South poles. North and South can be used to represent the zeros and ones the computer processes. Now all the directions between North and South represent the full range of audio signals in …