Cost

When dealing with Blu-Ray on computers, we’re looking more into using this medium as a storage device over a video viewing device. Geeks, like myself, do watch media on our computers but the general public does not. We all, however, do use our computers as an information storage device. The amount of information that can be stored on a Blu-Ray disk was actually one of the selling points of the medium. This, along with Sony’s marketing powerhouse (with Hollywood Support), is probably what drove HD-DVD out of the market. So, our cost comparisons below are only going to show the duel layer BD’s (Blu-ray Disk), because the 25GB single layer disks are too small for the files we’ll want to use with this storage medium. According to several leading hardware sales locations, if I wanted to begin backing up information today this is what I’ll be spending:

• Blu-Ray Burner: $150 (LG) – $200 (Pioneer)
• BD-r 50GB: $150 (10 Pack – Verbatim) or $20 (1 Pack – Sony)

So, to store our first 50GB of information we’re already looking at a price tag of $170, using the lowest priced BD-rw and a single 50GB duel layer BD.

The standard hard drive has come a long way from it’s roots. There are many different styles, sizes and speeds all competing for your money. Also, with the technological introductions of USB and Solid-State drives, we’re seeing even faster price drops on the latest (sometimes greatest) hard drives. 1TB (terabyte, or 1,000 gigabytes) drives are now running around the $75-$100 price tag for the standard 7200rpm drive. Some 2TB drives, distributed by companies such as Toshiba and Seagate, are coming in around the $150 mark. To achieve the back-up potential of one of these hard drives (1TB model), you’d need to burn 20.48 disks of information. If you were to use the Verbatim disks (round down from 20.48 to 20, and assume Verbatim disks have a 100% success rate) you’d need to spend around $450. With that $450, you could of backed up nearly 6TB of information on internal hard drives; or slightly less for external hard drives.

A lot of the changes took place under the hood, so most people won’t notice much of a difference visually. This upgrade was strictly about performance improvements, with a few minor UI enhancements. Hey, I’m fine with that, as OSX Leopard runs smooth as it is on my Macbook. Among one of the big features is integrated support for Microsoft Exchange, so if you’re a Mac based business or an employee with a Mac machine, you can ditch Entourage once and for all tomorrow. All you IT folks out there with a mixed environment of Macs and PCs are probably all too familiar with the shortcomings of Entourage on an Exchange based mail system. I can’t wait to get it setup on my Macbook because honestly using Outlook Web Access to access webmail is a chore, especially on a system without Internet Explorer (Outlook Web Access is very limited in non IE browsers by design- bad form, MS). Our iPhone’s work well with our Exchange server and its about time that our desktops/laptops will too.

OSX Snow Leopard will include the latest versions of Safari 4, Quicktime X, and Finder. While Finder and Quicktime aren’t ‘new’, they’ve been rebuilt in Cocoa and purported to be much faster than current versions. Safari 4 comes with speed improvements and better Javascript performance.

Upgrading will cost you a meager $30, while the full version is a reasonable $130.

Links:

Gizmodo Review
Engadget Mac / Exchange Article

After trying to get Windows 7 to install, XP Pro to install, and after that Ubuntu (even Ubuntu failed) on an older Windows laptop, I gave up. Each one had a different bitchy reason as to why it would refuse to install. After a few hours of trying every trick in the book I basically said f it. I had really hoped Windows 7 would have installed, because I think its a GREAT effort from Microsoft, best they’ve done since XP dropped over 8 years ago. Cest la vie.

I guess my Mac-hating was pretty justified over the years, but now theres no reason to not consider one from Apple. The software compatibility / availability is pretty on par now, and Leopard OSX 10.5+ REALLY flies compared to their older versions. I went with the white 2.0 ghz core duo and added 4 GB of ram into it. I wasn’t concerned really about a 13″ screen (its pretty big and viewable), at home I hook it into my 52″ LCD if I need to see more.

Being 64 bit, Leopard can handle every bit of that RAM too. 32 bit OS like XP and Vista cannot use more than 3GB of ram, which was always a point of stupidity to me. Why would software have such a limitation? Now I can run what I want without worrying that I am going to run out of memory. It has BootCamp standard, which means I could install XP/Vista if I chose to for dual boot purposes. Like if I needed to use something in Windows.

Honestly? I haven’t even reached for an install disc, and I don’t think I am going to. I am even considering getting a 24″ iMac this year to replace my aging desktop.

Pete and I have a feeling Microsoft will be on the way out in the next 5 or 10 years. It takes forever to explain, but using another OS for an hour like OSX or Ubuntu and its clearer to see why; it all just works.

One of my favorite things to do is guess someones password. Why? Because I can usually guess it. After analyzing someones intelligence and technical prowess, you can gauge how difficult their password probably is. Pete likes to throw random accounts at me and I’ll guess the password for fun. Usually get it on the third or fourth try. Ask Kevin Howett, I could regularly guess his AIM/MSN Zone passwords quite regularly back in the day.

Here’s the scary part. Most users in the real world day to day business use passwords that are far too weak to even have any use. You would be surprised how many people use ‘password’ or ‘name123′ or just ‘name’ as a password. Tons. Or their birthdate, car, dogs name, or sports team name. This won’t protect you against anything, and choosing a password you can remember does not give you the benefits of a password at all. By just being a regular word like ‘toyota’ or ‘bill123′ any skilled cracker/hacker is going to get into your account no sweat.

Why? Well, they will tell you that choosing a password is hard. I don’t disagree with them. Having to think of something no one else is expected to discover is hard. There are services that can assist you with this.

A good password is one no one can guess, and one that would hinder even the best hacker or brute force app out there. That is why I am recommending to you to use Good Password. It will assist you in generating a password randomly or from a phrase of your liking.

While these may be hard for you to remember, don’t be discouraged. This is for your (and the company you work for) protection. I would suggest, if you must, to write them down and keep it in your wallet, or a place no one but you has access to.

When they needed to completely overhaul their website design and corporate image, they needed the right tool for the job. They came right to Inclind. We provided them with our robust Content Management System with a fresh new design to meet their expectations.

In addition to a transformation of the website design, the redeveloped website includes several additional new sections of content including information on specific projects. It will be much easier to make changes and updates any page of this new website with the included backend intranet branded as Inclind CMS. This content management system will also include a tool to post news releases and a tool to manage employee events. This Inclind product is really a valuable advancement that allows companies like George & Lynch to make adjustments to their website themselves instantly and effortlessly. This is an enormous breakthrough from their previous website, and only Inclind Delaware web design can offer such tools.

Full search engine optimization capabilities were implemented as well so anyone looking for the services George & Lynch offers can find them easily in any major search engine. Inclind’s web applications allow for very organic search engine methods to be executed by the user, and our web applications are intelligent enough to manage this without any interaction at all. Our adherance to strict web standards allows us to deliver websites that are accessible in any major browser equally, reaching a wider audience than their old website could.

“We have enjoyed working with Inclind, and look forward to working on other projects in the future.” says Dave McGuigan, George & Lynch’s Vice President of Business Development.

Every business requires teamwork. It doesn’t matter what field you are in. Music, medical, law, military, web development, even marriage. Nothing is successful without the mutual backing of each other toward the end goal. Support comes from respect, not the requirement thereof based on a job title. Command it, don’t demand it. It starts with you!

There are 4 major factors of an individual that calculates how successful teamwork will be:

1. Respect
2. Personality
3. Commitment
4. Communication

When 1 person has these qualities, and you match them with others who do as well, you get solid team chemistry, team dynamics. This creates success.

It’s not about having a group and saying, ‘get this done’. You can’t force people to work together just because you say they have to. Remember when you were assigned group projects in school or college? Didn’t always go so well did it? You’d have a couple people not pulling their weight, another who let someone else do all the work just to pass.

It’s also not about assembling experts and throwing money at them to solve a problem.

Without chemistry and team dynamics, it just won’t work. What you’ll have on your hands is a revolving door environment, people coming in, quickly going out. New hires, quick fires, low morale.

Team dynamics is a team that can play off of each others strengths in order to support each others areas of weakness. What you have then is a tight unit where the rate of failure drops to nearly zero. Look at Google. Everyone there isn’t the best in everything, most of them are good programmers with very creative personalities and commitment to what they do. Even when Google started, Larry Page and Sergey Brin had such a solid foundation that their college project evolved into taking over the world. But Google is good, so thats okay! What I mean here is, think of all the designers who try to program, and all the programmers who try to design. On their own, they usually do great at one, poor at the other. But put them together and focus on each others strong areas (programming and design) and the end product is infinitely greater than what it was before. Each persons weakness is the others strength, together they form a successful unit. Team dynamics are a force multiplier!

Earlier I mentioned that it doesn’t matter what field you are in, that teamwork encompasses any area. So lets draw a parallel with another industry, music.

Off the top of your head, can you think of any bands that have been around a while? Lets see:

• Rolling Stones
• Rush
• Metallica
• AC/DC
• Red Hot Chili Peppers
• The Smashing Pumpkins
• Guns ‘n Roses
• Pearl Jam
• Megadeth

These are some of my favorite bands who have accumulated massive success for the last 20 years, some even more than that. But there are two on the list that don’t have something in common with the rest.

While all bands have had at least 1 lineup change, only two have a revolving door type environment. Guns ‘n Roses and Megadeth have changed their lineups at least every 2 to 3 years since they started. In particular, Axl Rose and Dave Mustaine (both frontmen) keep a stranglehold on everything from writing, playing, mixing, and deciding pay percentages. They don’t really care for the input of the others, and in their mind, they are the star of the show.

So, what happened?

Both Axl and Dave did not respect their bandmates nor attempt to communicate with them on major issues or pending work. The result ended up being band members coming and going. Their poor, controlling, megalomaniacal attitudes brought dreams and careers to an end. Everyone knows that when Slash and Izzy Stradlin quit Guns ‘n Roses, the band was effectively dead. Why? The chemistry had dissolved, you didn’t have passionate, creative people working together anymore, you just had a bunch of guys playing instruments. That just doesn’t work. Sure, you can still see them in concert today, but the only original member is Axl, and its basically just a name and a memory. Same with Megadeth. The chemistry is gone. Imagine how many more albums they could have done if they each possessed the 4 qualities I mentioned at the start of this article!

It’s the same way with web development. You can put anyone on the keyboard and write code, put anyone in front of Photoshop, anyone can give orders. But its just not the same as having a strong team who has a desire to work together.

This is why Inclind is successful at any undertaking and every client is happy with us, why we’re the best web development company in Delaware, and one of the best in the region. We’ve accomplished everything we put our minds to, or asked to do, big projects to small projects to personal things like helping each other outside the office or just hanging out. We aren’t just a face and a title, we’re human beings here to help you and help each other. We don’t just take your money and run, we make it worth your while. Your satisfaction and success is shared by us.

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