2010 13th July

Tech News July 12, 2010 Google Google Google

July 10, 2010: Google’s YouTube.com announced that they now support up to 4k resolution. This is 2 times the quality that IMAX uses on their giant 25 foot movie screens. Clearly YouTube is planning for a super hidef future.

July 10, 2010: Google to invest $100 million in online game developer Zynga. If you’re not sure who Zynga is, just think Farmville, or Frontierville, or one of the other time sucking highly addictive games found on Facebook. Personally, if Google wants to replace Facebook, they need access to entertainment. Since they recently introduced a mini Pacman game on their Google page, it looks like they see the value of games as a revenue stream and a draw for pages with advertising.

2010 29th June

Google speaks out about how searches work

On June 8th, Google announced on their company blog that they were using an new searching algorithm (method) for keeping track of all in information on the web. They named this new system Caffeine.

Caffeine lets us index web pages on an enormous scale. In fact, every second Caffeine processes hundreds of thousands of pages in parallel. If this were a pile of paper it would grow three miles taller every second. Caffeine takes up nearly 100 million gigabytes of storage in one database and adds new information at a rate of hundreds of thousands of gigabytes per day. You would need 625,000 of the largest iPods to store that much information; if these were stacked end-to-end they would go for more than 40 miles.

Sidebar: How Search Engines Work
A search engine does not scour the Internet when you look for something. Instead, search engines “scape” the Internet looking for data and then build a giant list/table called an index. When you type in a search request, the search engine, looks in the index to find everything it has on your search terms and then sorts if based on factors such as popularity, how frequently the search terms are used, and other factors.

Google claims that Caffeine provides 50% more up-to-date information than their old system and has more stored information about the Internet than ever before.

Why is this big news: Analysts listen to and watch Google (G) because G’s search engines often provide more traffic to a website than when people just type the address into a web browser.

Google’s… old index had several layers, some of which were refreshed at a faster rate than others; the main layer would update every couple of weeks. To refresh a layer of the old index, we would analyze the entire web, which meant there was a significant delay between when we found a page and made it available to you.

With Caffeine, we analyze the web in small portions and update our search index on a continuous basis, globally. As we find new pages, or new information on existing pages, we can add these straight to the index. That means you can find fresher information than ever before—no matter when or where it was published.

Recently Google posted an article on their webmaster blog explaining their ranking methods. It’s all about quality. Google’s advice to owners of new websites is simple. Get involved in an online community and contribute with substance. Avoid fluff. Humor is OK, but don’t waste people’s time with ads and other junk. They discourage the purchase of links from unrelated sites or doing random link exchanges (where you trade links on sites with people who have nothing in common with you.) It is definitely a long-term game. Getting good rankings on Google is about consistency. It is not for sprinters. This race is for the turtle. Finally, Google suggests that you make it easy for novice users to link to your site. Notice below that you can post a bookmark to

2010 25th June

Screen-cast

Sometimes you can’t be there to explain something in person. Sometimes it’s just plain easier to show people then to tell people. Sometimes you need to show something to many people, but they can’t all be there at once.

A great solution is a screen cast. That’s where you record a session on your computer and then share it on your website for others to see. You can share a PowerPoint presentation or even steps to setup email. Higher end solutions let you add custom artwork, audio and your branding.

Contact Nohl at Focus Web Works to learn how you can do this too. The software is free.

Here’s an example (Just click on it to play):

2010 21st June

Exciting new support tools

Focus Web Works is committed to empowering customers. With that in mind, I am very excited to share our latest service innovation: A whole site with dedicated training videos to help you be more productive on your own schedule and at your own pace.

Visit our new site at tutorials.wowszer.com

As if that isn’t enough, I am also working on a series of other tutorials to help with specific tasks in the cpanel file manager and using WordPress. So don’t forget to check back often :)

2010 18th June

Tech Newbie Joke

It’s Friday, so here’s some fun :)

During a company’s recent password audit, it was found that a new employee was using the following password:

“MickeyMinniePlutoHueyLouieDeweyDonaldGoofySacramento”

When asked why she had such a long password, she said she was told that it had to be at least 8 characters long and include at least one capital.

2010 18th June

WordPress 3.0

Big news for WordPress users. Version 3.0 has been officially released and is available for immediate update.

There are many new features, but like a new operating system, some plugins and themes may not be fully compatible.

So far I have not seen many issues, however, some themes and plugins that really pushed the envelope seem to be failing. I’ve seen some slideshow plugins stop working alltogther.

Before you upgrade, check for updates and 3.0 compatability. Lots of developers are releasing updates like crazy.

Please watch for future posts where I showcase handy WordPress plugins and themes.

2010 18th June

Friday’s meeting. Finally

Holly wrote this up on Monday, and I’m just getting to it at 1:41 the following Friday. Oops.

Here are the notes :}

Hello and Happy Monday to all!

Here are the notes from meeting, please read them all, there is a lot of important information in this and you don’t want to miss anything.

I know we spoke of a Givers Gain Blog – Nohl how are we doing on that?! <Its under construction. Hope to have it ready early next week>

We had a couple people decide to not continue.  Even though we will re-invite them, please keep their positions open for when you are making your 40 invite lists.
Mark Campbell – Car School
James Currain – Interior Designer
Erica and Brice – Me Salon / Better Bodies
Eric Stone – Nutrition

<This bums me out. I liked those guys.>
This Friday, June 19th our first leadership team training is going to be held after our meeting. Please remember to put it on your calendar.
President -  Chuck Zaepfel
Vice President – Holly Behan
Secretary / Treasurer – Jason Watson
Membership Committee – Corinne Ortiz and Amaya Maat
Education – Phil Manker
Event Coordinator – Chaz Elsten
Visitor Host – Jason Robinson, Jen O’Brien, Chach Jackson
*If you cannot make it, please make sure you touch base with myself or Chuck*
<Wow, I think I’m the only one not on the leadership team.>
Chrisie has taken off the Northwest as a showcase chapter.  Also keep in mind – We want to be a showcase chapter to start off!

Important Dates to remember:

June 16th – This Wednesday 2:30 – 6:30 MSP Training.  At Varsity Suites – Speedway / Alvernon
June 24th – Advanced MSP Training – Module 1 – Referral Mindset * this is going to be an amazing class, please try to attend since it is the beginning of the modules!
June 25th – Letters are due * attached are the documents for merging your letters * please don’t wait until the last minute to get these completed
July 9th – Is our kick off date!  Whoohoo!!
July 10th – Last MSP Training able to attend (if you have not already attended) 9:00 – 12:00 Varsity Suites – Speedway /Alvernon
July 16th – First run meeting with Chuck as President!

Please take a look at the attachments and please let Chuck know if there are any issues.

Thank you ALL again for ALL you do!  Have a great week and we will see a lot of you at the training this Wednesday!

<Man, she takes good notes – Thanks Holly>

2010 14th June

Meet Corinne Ortiz

Corinne is amazingly driven. Don’t get me wrong she is friendly and family oriented.

All that said, this woman has been in pest control for 12 years. She’s worked her way from office assistant to general manager for Essential Pest Control. Not a lot of people can do that.

She prides herself on being fearless around bugs. That’s pretty good when you think of all the people who react to bugs less than gracefully.

If you want to do business with someone who will take care of you like you are family, you want work with Corinne. If it matters to you, it matters to her.

You can contact Corinne at Essential Pest Control at  (520) 886-3029

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