Computing tech that defined the decade

admin    8615     Computing, Decade, Defined, Tech

Computing tech that defined the decade

Bill Gates anticipated great things from the so-called “noughties” when he described it as the “Digital Decade” back in 2001.

“The innovations of this decade will be more than just a handful of new features,” he wrote. “They’ll transform the way the PC fits into our lives, and the way we think about computing.”

Was he right? It’s been ten years of rapid technological change; ten years of smaller, faster and cheaper.

The PDA died; you could cook an egg on the heat generated by a 3.8GHz Pentium 4 PC; small laptops spawned recession-friendly netbooks; and social networking exploded with MySpace, Facebook and Twitter.

PENTIUM 4: The Intel Pentium 4 was planned to scale up to 10GHz, but never made it past a 3.8GHz chip

At the beginning of the decade, Gates prophecised that we’d all be carrying Tablet PCs, accessing our information on the move, and that our shiny Windows XP-powered computers would be the entertainment and communication hubs of our digital homes.

Needless to say, not all of this has come true. But here are some selected highlights extracted from the TechRadar hive-mind – you can add your own in the comments section below. First up…

The rise of the super-laptop

Rewind to the year 2000 and laptops were chunky, sombre grey biz-machines with 14-inch displays, Intel Mobile Pentium III processors and (if you were lucky) a 20GB hard disk. But laptop manufacturers started to experiment.

On the one hand, they shoehorned full-fat Pentium 4’s into hulking ‘desktop replacement’ systems with 17-inch LCDs, rewritable CD/DVD combo drives and a battery life of less than an hour. On the other, we saw machines like the TR1MP, a dinky, mist-silvered Sony VAIO no bigger than a hardback book. It blazed a trail for countless netbooks to come.

In 2003, Intel’s Centrino platform not only introduced the efficient Pentium M processor, but gave the fledgeling Wi-Fi standard a much-needed boost by including 802.11b as standard.

As the years rolled by, manufacturers also started sneaking in other features: 802.11g and 802.11n, Bluetooth, TV tuners, built-in webcams, widescreen displays, LED-backlit displays, bigger hard disks, faster GPUs, novelty fingerprint recognition systems and more RAM.

More recently, single-core processors have quietly bowed out in favour of new multi-core architectures. Modern laptops are now thinner, lighter, cheaper, faster, longer-lasting and far more colourful than their predecessors.

The dawn of the netbook

If you ignore the pioneering PDA/laptop mashup that was the Psion 7 (2000), then the Asus Eee (launched in 2007) is widely considered as the first true ‘netbook’. Small and lightweight, the Eee stripped the traditional laptop down to its undies, jettisoning expensive technology like the hard disk, large LCD and Windows in favour of flash memory, a 7-inch display and Linux.

Less isn’t more in this case. It’s actually less. Nevertheless, netbooks remain in vogue. MSI, Acer, Dell, Sony and Advent have all jumped onto the bandwagon to ride it into 2010.

Format wars continue to rage

We love a good format war and the past ten years have been rife with technology showdowns – Mac vs PC; OS X vs XP/Vista/Windows 7; Blu-ray vs HD DVD; Intel vs AMD; Nvidia vs ATI (later AMD); EU vs Microsoft; IE vs Firefox (Firefox forced IE usage below 90 percent for the first time in 2004); Google vs Microsoft; Xbox 360 vs PlayStation 3.

FIREFOX: The browser’s popularity with users saw the market share of Internet Explorer dip below 90% in 2004

Mac vs. PC (again)

While Microsoft is now happily bathing in the glow of good Windows 7 reviews, the decade arguably belongs to a simpler operating system – Windows XP. Launched in 2001, XP replaced Windows 2000 and the forgettable Windows Me. It’s a testament to XP’s usability, flexibility and Service Pack-fuelled staying power that users stuck with it even when Microsoft rolled out the ‘wow starts now’ Windows Vista in 2007.

The noughties also saw the release of Apple’s OS X operating system. The public beta of OS X (codenamed Kodiak) was released in early 2000 and has grown impressively through incremental big cat upgrades – Cheetah, Puma, Jaguar, Panther, Tiger, Leopard and Snow Leopard.

OS X continues to be flexible, stable and easy on the eye. The versatility of the code also saw chunks of it used in the software for the iPod touch, iPhone and Apple TV.

And while we’re talking operating systems, a quick word about Linux… Ubuntu saw its first release in 2004 (aka Warty Warthog), with updates every six months that included the likes of Hoary Hedgehog, Breezy Badger and Feisty Fawn

UBUNTU: The OS did much to strip away the geeky image associated with Linux. Heck, even my mum now uses it

Based on the Debian Linux distro, Ubuntu has arguably done more to make Linux acceptable to mainstream computer users than any other version of the open source OS. In short, Ubuntu has made Linux look cool.

Resource:  1. Understanding your Sony Battery Needs

2. Cheap SONY laptop batteries

More Dell Tablet Articles

Internet Marketing Terminology Defined

admin    Website Marketing Companies     Defined, Internet, marketing, Terminology

Wikipedia defines internet marketing as: Internet marketing, also referred to as online marketing, Internet advertising, or eMarketing, is the marketing of products or services over the Internet. When applied to the subset of website-based advertisement placements, Internet marketing is commonly referred to as Web advertising (also Webvertising) and Web marketing.[citation needed] The Internet has brought many unique benefits to marketing, one of which being lower costs for the distribution of information and media to a global audience. The interactive nature of Internet marketing, both in terms of providing instant response and eliciting responses, is a unique quality of the medium. Internet marketing is sometimes considered to have a broader scope because it refers to digital media such as the Internet, e-mail, and wireless media; however, Internet marketing also includes management of digital customer data and electronic customer relationship management (ECRM) systems.

Internet marketing ties together creative and technical aspects of the Internet, including design, development, advertising, and sales. Internet marketing does not simply entail building or promoting a website, nor does it mean placing a banner ad on another website. Effective Internet marketing requires a comprehensive strategy that synergizes a given company’s business model and sales goals with its website function and appearance, focusing on its target market through proper choice of advertising type, media, and design.

 

A few terms that come up allot in IM will be listed and defined below.

Bum Marketing:  The basic concept is using article marketing, classified ads etc. to promote affiliate products. The name was created because Travis claims “It’s so easy a bum could do it,” similar to Geico’s “It’s so easy a caveman could do it.”

Article Marketing: Write a 300 – 500 word article about anything that interests you. Post to about 2-3 article submission sites like goarticles.com and isnare.com. The main reason for this is to put your website url in the signature block to get a one way back link to your site.

Blogging: Write a blog that is in the same genre as your business is. Link the blog to your site by placing it strategically in the body of the blog and in the signature block. Use blogger.com to start and if you want you can start utilizing others just by going to Google and look up “blogs”

Forums: Forums are a good place to get back links. Make sure to have your url in your signature block and for every comment you leave or every post you start you will get a back link as log as the forum you are on is popular on Google. I personally use warriorforum.com. It is the best IM forum on the net.

I have listed a few of the most important definitions in IM. Make sure you utilize all of these methods to make your internet marketing venture a success.

 

 

 

 

 

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Google Adsense Has Very Clearly Defined Rules to Participate in the Program

admin    Google Optimization     Adsense, Clearly, Defined, google, Participate, Program, Rules, Very

You surely have seen many websites that have the words “Ads by Google” displayed on different sections of the page. The website owner is participating in the Google Adsense program and has agreed to display advertisements on their website. Google Adsense is program that delivers targeted advertisements to participating websites and provides a source of income for website owners.

The ads are relevant to the content contained on the pages of your website. The great part about the program is that someone browsing a website about dieting, for instance, will not be exposed to advertisements about horses or another unrelated topic. For more information you may try at www.instant-adsense-dollars.com. Instead, they will be exposed to advertisements that can take them to other websites that contain more dieting information or dieting related products and services.

The Google Adsense program is completely free to join and requires very little effort on your part. You copy and paste code provided to you by Google Adsense to add to each of the pages of your website that you desire. You have complete control over the number of ads displayed and the location on the page where you will place the ads.

The entire process is automated and the Google Adsense software searches for keywords and key phrases on your web page to determine what type of ads it will deliver. The ads that actually get displayed by the Google Adsense program are determined by the availability of current advertisers in the program, the bid price, relevance of the keyword, and the best click through rate. The ads with the best combination of these will be displayed first.

When a Google ad is clicked on, Google will pay you a portion of the bid price that is paid by the advertiser for a particular keyword. This is a very effective way for you to monetize your website. Monetizing your website refers to the methods you have chosen to produce revenue from your website. For example, say you have 1000 visitors and 20% of them click on your adsense ads. The price you will be paid per click will vary greatly but for ease of explanation, let’s say the average click pays 25 cents. You would have made $50 on that day. If you can consistently achieve those results, your website can bring you an additional $1500 per month.

Do not be tempted to do anything that will result in invalid clicks such as clicking on your own ads or asking a friend to. You can also go to www.googleincomemachine.com. Google will swiftly and immediately terminate your account and ban you from any future participation in the program. Google employs advanced methods to detect invalid clicks or suspicious activity.

You may be thinking why you would want to lead a visitor away from your website with a Google ad. The visitor is eventually going to leave your website. This is just the nature of surfing the web. You might as well be paid when the visitor leaves your website. If you focus on providing high quality content for your visitors, chances are they will return for additional visits, so you need not worry too much. However, if your website is designed to sell a product and you want the visitor totally focused on your sales copy then it would not be a good idea to participate in Google Adsense anyway for this type of website. Just use your best judgment.

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Internet Marketing is Defined as Advertising and Selling a Product on the Internet!

admin    Website Marketing Resources     Advertising, Defined, Internet, marketing, Product, Selling

One way that every business uses the Internet, if they are smart is to do email marketing. Building an opt-in lost list of subscribers who want to hear from you is an excellent way to keep in touch with your customers and make futures sales.

Today auto responders have replaced direct mail, and snail mail follow-up. Contact information can be generated on websites by a sign-up form. This is a great way to capture your visitor’s information if they are not customers, for more details visit to www.mrx-interview.com because someday they may want to become one. .Internet marketing today includes things such as blogging and Web 2.0 marketing. There is also a large emphasis placed on search engine optimization. These are all terms that can become intimidating to the average Internet marketer.

Fortunately there are people available to do the sort of activities for you and you can outsource much of your business today if you personally do not want to handle it. As a matter of fact there are many businesses that have more money than time and will outsource a great portion of what they do.

Internet marketing works today because search engines do such a great job of providing relevant searches to their visitors. Another thing that has become very useful is local search. Internet marketing is defined as advertising and selling a product on the Internet. Even businesses that are primarily operated off line in the past are now starting to develop an Internet presence.

This is quickly replacing yellow pages as a way for people to find anything from a local pizza company, to someone to do their hair. This can be as easy as typing in the keyword phrase and the city where you live.

The one thing that really hasn’t changed with Internet marketing is the importance of getting traffic to a website or blog before, for more details visit to www.outsource-beginners.com you can make any money. The most successful Internet marketers today are the people who are able to attract the most traffic. Even businesses that are not actively using Web 2.0 marketing, or do not even have a quality website; can make money on the Internet if they get enough visitors to their site.

The ultra successful Internet marketer understands the importance of converting some of their visitors into paying customers. They do this by making sure that their visitors experience is as enjoyable as possible. This can lead to viral marketing which in turn can send even more visitors in the future.

This is a few examples of how Internet marketing works today. Any business can and should be doing as many of these things as possible.

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Search Marketing Defined in One Sentence!

admin    Website Marketing Companies     Defined, marketing, Search, Sentence

For the past few years of professional career as a web marketing strategist I have heard (beyond exhaustion) the infamous question.   “How do you get websites ranked higher or how can I get more traffic and more sales?”Being that is usually coming from a business owner/internet entrepreneur this question is economic in nature.  The person is pretty asking “how can I make more money” with my website?I may not be your stock broker or finance professor,  however don’t be naive to think that the internet is exempt from the universal laws of economics.  The supply and demand of your product or service CAN and WILL influence your search engine positioning and ultimate success.   If you change your perspective to fit one economist you can actually boil down a mountain of books, blog advice and lectures into one simple answer.  SEO may be an art…but true success in internet business is a science.So here it is point blank

Demand (Money + Time) = Your Website’s Online Visibility

Yes thats right.  This simple algebraic equation is a baseline approach that intelligent Internet marketer must consider when promoting a website.  Let me explain the variables to this formula.

Variable #1: MONEY

Demand (Money + Time) = Your Website’s Online Visibility

We are mean and green.  Welcome to the NOW generation.  Most businesses are impatient and will quickly turn to paid advertising for quick traffic and sales.  This includes spending on paid advertising, paid linking, press releases, anything that costs money to get visibility on line.   It could take months to rank for a phrase like “New Balance running shoes” where it takes only 15 minutes to setup a Google Adwords campaign and start getting traffic immediately.   However you must be willing to pay anywhere from $0.01 to over $50 a click for this traffic.  Once your out of money, tough luck. 

There is nothing wrong with spending money on paid advertising as long as your business is producing a positive ROI.   Paid traffic can also bring you repeat business that will likely go directly to your website.  Also considering this primary way search engines generate revenue (in fact Google makes 99% of its revenue through Adwords) it’s unlikely the paid online advertising will ever go obsolete.  Our suggestion is to make sure you are carefully managing your paid accounts…or hire a professional to manage them for you.   Many people are clueless when it comes to setting up and managing pay per click campaigns.   Similar to hiring an accountant to save money on taxes, hire a legitimate search engine marketing professional to save money on pay per click and/or other forms of on line advertising

Variable #2: TIME

DEMAND (MONEY + TIME) = ONLINE VISIBILITY

It’s possible to generate on line visibility without spending a dime on paid advertising. This is usually accomplished through countless hours of search engine optimization, blogging, social networking, etc. This is often more common with hobbyists/part timers who are under less pressure to generate on line revenue. The problem it may take several months/years to learn how to naturally promote a website and much longer to actually apply these tactics. A common problem (and sometimes fatal error) beginners may succumb to taking bad advice and end up using questionable tactics that end up hurting their online positioning. Plus it isn’t just about SEO anymore, there are newer web marketing options such as blogging, video promotion, mobile advertising and social marketing that smart businesses are embracing to gain new customers.  Not to mention the organic listings on search engines are finite, where the competition is growing every minute. 

Devoting your effort to promoting a website/blog can be very rewarding if you are diligent in your work. However remember the old cliché “time is money”. Do you really have extra time to devote to your project?   If the answer is “yes” great, if no find someone to do it for you (unless you want to become a SEO professional).VARIABLE #3: DEMAND

DEMAND (TIME + MONEY) = YOUR WEBSITE’S ONLINE VISIBILITY

In the not too distant past, the venerable web marketing guru Danny Sullivan commented at SES conference in Chicago that when it comes to web marketing “it is much easier to have the search engines pull your product or service….then trying to push it”. Just face it, some services or products are in more demand than others. And some industries are more or less complicated. If you are trying to promote a website for general keywords related to mortgages, real estate, viagra, etc you are likely going to have demand variable that is far less than 1 (

(1%) multiplied by ($100000 x 200 hours of work) = ONLINE VISIBILITY RETURN

Not to be discouraging, but just realize that if you have a low demand service/product you will end up investing more time and money. You may also have to focus more a certain niche for these markets. For example, you may next to impossible for a newbie to get ranked on the first page of Google time getting ranked on the first page for “New York Real Estate”. Considering your brutal competition your demand variable is going to be very low for this phrase. However if you try promoting our website for “Ashland New York Real Estate” (Ashland is a small city in NY state) your are much more likely to get higher returns and placement for this specific phrase.

Also don’t forget to mention hot topics that are being noticed by the media/public. Have you found the cure for cancer? Did Oprah endorse your book/product? Do you have something special that none of your competitors can offer (and your customers truly want) If you answered YES your demand variable will increase exponentially. So the little money/time you devote to a high demand service/product will be significantly multiplied.

The tricky part about demand is that many business owners often overestimate the true demand for their service or product. You need to seek unbiased information about popular your service/product is.

You also need to protect yourself against copycats, imitators and knock off artists. If you have a great idea make sure to file for a trademark/service mark immediately with the United States Patent and Trademark Office

So you may be saying to yourself “well I get your point….so now what?”. Well every situation is different. First off except the fact that there are NO SHORTCUTS in online marketing business, but you can make better educated choices.  Just like any long term investment you must stay optimistic because you will eventually get what you pay for.

SEO Prodigy understands that there is no best answer to online marketers, only better answers.

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