We are pleased to work with Ramon Ray, CEO and editor of SmallBizTechnology.com, journalist, and technology evangelist, to bring you new Small Biz tips. Each week they’ll be sharing videos and articles featuring hot topics, products and trends in small business.
Increasingly, the development community has fashioned mobile programs for small-business owners, recognizing that on-the-go is simply part of running a modern enterprise, according to Ramon Ray, editor of Smallbiztechnology.com.
“They’re all about speed, efficiency and serving customers better,” he said in the Wall Street Journal. “They enable small businesses to do big things.”
I’m a long time user of Dropbox, for file sharing. I know others of you use, SugarSync, YouSendIt and other tools. I also use Carbonite for remote file access. Now, there’s new kid on the block, iTwin.
iTwin is not an online service but it’s a product, in fact a double sided USB drive. You plug one end into computer “A” and the other end into computer “B”. Once both ends of the iTwin USB drive are plugged in you can share files stored on the iTwin drive of one computer with the iTwin drive of the other computer. Pretty neat and simple. Watch a video about iTwin and read more.
Are You Backing Up Your Data? Here’s Why You Should
Sixty percent of small businesses that lose their data go bankrupt because of that data loss. Those are able to recover their data successfully spend anywhere from $2000 to $8000 per megabyte. Why go through the trouble, and take the risks, when the solution is as easy as backing up your valuable data?
“Have the peace of mind that your data is secure,” said Danesh Rao, Business Unit Manager for Small Businesses at Intel Home Storage. “It should be a no brainer.”
When I saw Wyse Pocket Cloud at a recent tech show, I was initially very excited about it. It’s designed to give the user complete access to a cloud, their PC, Remote Desktop Services, Terminal Server, VMware View or virtual machine from their mobile device. In short, it’s meant to give full access to any kind of computer or personal storage from your phone or tablet.
With Pocket Cloud, IT administrators can securely administer end-user machines remotely. When managing a large numbers of computers, or when you have users in many locations, this can be very handy. Pocket Cloud also allows a user to continue working on their machine remotely when traveling. PocketCloud accesses any physical or virtualized infrastructure that supports the Microsoft RDP or VNC protocols. Additionally, Pocket Cloud is VMware View 4.5 Certified and supports VMware View 4.5 connection broker in direct and tunneling modes.
PocketCloud keeps your sensitive data secure using Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) technology and they’re implementing newer technology as well. One real “get” is that it allows a backdoor way to access flash content even from an iOS device since the flash is actually running on the remote machine.
This all sounds pretty appealing, right? However, I found the product extremely cumbersome to set up. As a matter of fact, as of writing this I haven’t been able to see this product actually work. Now, don’t get me wrong; I saw it working at the product show booth. At the booth, it was everything that the demonstrator promised. However, when I installed it on my personal machine I met with frustration and failure – not a good feeling to associate with a new product!
The app and companion software were easy to download and install on my machine. Everything ran as expected and all the lights turned green on the interface. So, I fired up the app on my iPhone 4. It seemed to automatically detect my laptop where I had installed the companion software, so I tapped the icon of my computer. The connecting indicator spun for a while, and then I got an error message that wasn’t helpful (pictured right). I searched their knowledge base for solutions, but was met with a hard-to-search database filled with dense technical documentation. Protip – the harder a user has to work to find easy and understandable product support, the more likely they are to just throw their hands in the air and give up. I’m sure that if I spent a few hours working on this I could get it going (I am, after all, a software engineer) but I just can’t call this “easy to set up”. This may be a great solution for enterprises with a dedicated IT staff, but if you aren’t super tech-savvy this solution may not be ready for your small business just yet.
Nowadays we have all types of new gadgets to keep us connected. Those gadgets depend on a steady stream of data, often fed to them by that old standby – the router. Traditionally our wireless routers were made to support just a few devices. When the traffic became heavy, the signal became diluted and confused which caused performance problems. The only solution was to pay for more expensive bandwidth or to hardwire your devices. This was fine for a desktop, but really isn’t an option for your iPad.
To help with this, Belkin has introduced some new wireless routers designed with modern technology environments in mind. Specifically, I’d like to highlight the full-featured N600 DB and N750 DB. Both of these devices are great for heavy-streaming environments; for example, a home like mine where we watch a lot of streaming video via Hulu or Netflix. It’s also ideal for an office like mine where we do a lot of Skype. Of course, both of these devices support lots of bandwidth – but, this is just the beginning of the speed upgrades. The N750 is a bit faster at the highest levels, but most networks won’t be able to use these speeds. Where these routers really shine is with their antennas. The N600 has four internal directional antennas, while the N750 has five. What does this mean? It means that for up to five moving mobile devices, the router can actually locate the devices and beam concentrated signals in their direction. This basically eliminates dead zones and greatly extends the range of the router. They’re secure, backward compatible with older networks, and have all the standard features that you have come to expect.
The internal antennae aren’t the only interesting new features in these routers. For example, they can self-diagnose network problems and sometimes even fix them automatically. They’re able to steam music and video from one device to another. They’re also optimized for gaming, can support dual band 2.4g and 5g networks, and most importantly they’re able to prioritize traffic. This means that the router can differentiate between processes that need constant rates (like a streaming video or game) and processes that can afford to be throttled, like a file download. The overall effect is that all users get a great experience. If you have a cool new phone, tablets and video games but still have a router that is a few years old, now might be the time for an upgrade. These routers are cheaper than you might expect too. The N600 can be picked up for just $69, and the N750 can be had for $99.
Back in 2009 I was asked if I wanted to host a tv show produced by Maryland Public Television, I was honored by the ask and since I wanted to do more tv show hosting (hint, hint networks out there :-) I jumped at the opportunity. After months of meetings, days of shooting and weeks of editing we wrapped production and we were reviewing the final version sitting in the editing room I remember the producer Frank Batavick (an awesome producer) saying “This show really turned out great, we have to submit it for an Emmy”. I was like really? You think its that good? He thought so much so that he ended up submitting for 2 categories – Best Show and Best TV Show Host. I was like wow that’s cool I guess it can’t hurt! Months pass by, you go back to working on other projects and you forget about it until you hear the nominations are out. Funny thing happened though, I woke up one morning and as part of my routine, right before jumping in to work I check twitter to see what’s happening and there is this message from @brandocash – his tweet has me almost do a double back-flip.
I’m like, what huh? No way! I was actually nominated, I mean I knew we submitted an entry BUT nominated as Best TV Show Host that was amazing! Not only was I nominated but I heard that the show was also nominated. I had to verify this news, I remember opening my email and seeing a message from Frank (show producer) and I was like holy crap this is really happening! I call Frank and he’s like, this is for real and then he tells me that there were close to 20 submissions for the Best TV Show Host category and it was one of the largest categories of submissions and then he drops a bomb and tells me “only you and 1 other person were actually nominated!” What? Out of like 20 submissions–are you serious? Only 2 noms?
I remember being paused by the news and I was quiet and at the moment it seemed that everything went into slow motion. I started replaying memories of all the years of busting my tail, trying to break in, trying to make an impact while trying to reach larger audiences! I recalled when I first got my start buy buying airtime myself on a little am radio station in Annapolis MD back in 1999. The station was WBIS 1190, the show was titled “Tech Talk” horrible name but at that time it seemed right :-). Back then the show was discussing email attachments, web design and interviews with local Baltimore tech co’s like Gr8 and E.magination. Then I recalled how I started working for FREE for YEARS at TV stations like WMAR-ABC and radio stations like WEAA–I mean for 2 years straight with no pay I would wake up on Thursday mornings at 4:30am to do a 3 minute segment on WMAR-ABC and then go to the day job! Many people also many not know but for several years, I hosted a 1 hour weekly radio show with no pay on WEAA. I started thinking about those 5am freezing cold and dark winter mornings where I would ask myself is this worth it? Many of days I had to remind myself of the bigger picture and vision, that I love this business of tv/radio and I love using it as a way to reach and help people. Fast forward several years later and my business partner Nicole took my passion and really paved the way to entrepreneurship – without her chasing this entrepreneurial dream just wouldn’t be happening!!!! I remember how she would push me and critique my on-air delivery as well as my approach to research (which she still does today :-). Not only could she run the business but she was also jumping in my sandbox helping me perfect it every step of the way!
So fast-forward to EMMY night at which our little company purchased a table, which was a big deal to our small biz, especially when the tickets are $150 a pop. It was a surreal moment but cool as hell to see our small business name on the seating chart surrounded by media heavyweight companies like Washington Post, WBFF TV group etc…we were like the little no-name underdog for sure!
The EMMY evening was awesome, they had the red carpet going, pro photographers shooting pics everywhere, everyone was dressed really stunning and everyone was smiling. We walked the red carpet and the host put my 8yr old son on the spot with a “red carpet” interview-LOL. I remember saying to family “let’s just enjoy the moment and the opportunity to even be here and not think about winning”. Frank (the show producer) had warned me that the night would be long but I had no idea it was going to be that long. There were over 50 categories to announce and our categories were close to the end.
They finally make it to our category and the cool thing is the MC that announced my category is Baltimore (my hometown) dude Chef Duff Goldman, star of Ace of Cakes tv show. Throughout the nite they were alternating MC’s, they had 4 that evening, so it was cool to me (being a Baltimore boy) that he was announcing my category. He starts off by saying “and now to the toughest category this evening” — my heart stopped, I looked at Nicole and we both mouthed in silence “you gotta be kidding me”, we took a deep breath and the next thing we know Duff opens the envelope and reads “and the Emmy for Best TV Show Host goes to Mario Armstrong for You Can Afford College, Maryland Public Television”. I froze for a second or 2 in my seat, all I recall was alot of screaming and clapping and the feeling of a heavy-weight being lifted (the anticipation is extremely intense). I’m still in my seat kind of on pause and then I remember my son Chris rubbing my back and at that moment I jumped up hugged my wife and kid, hi-fived Frank Batavick (show producer) and walked up to the stage to give the 30 sec speech, that was all the time you are allowed.
Speaking of speeches, I didn’t prepare notes ahead of time although maybe I should have because 2 nites before the event I had a crazy dream that I walked up on stage and started saying quotes from 4 specific people–Will Smith (calm and honored), Oprah Winfrey (and you get an Emmy and you get an Emmy…), Tom Cruise (guess I thought I’d be jumping up and down alot) and ready for this–Samuel Jackson (I was yelling and cussing with excitement). So a few minutes before my category was called I was getting a bit too excited and thought maybe I should write a few notes so I don’t accidentally go Samuel Jackson on anybody. So I started writing notes so I wouldn’t forget anything but if you look closely in the video of the speech below, you can see that I end up stuffing it in my back pocket on the way to the stage-LOL. Just spoke from the heart! You will also see that I almost forgot the actual Emmy as well!
The night was magical, I was wearing my favorite cuff links given to me by my late Uncle Carroll (who recently passed too soon), his favorite number was 23, which was the page my category was listed on and Duff my Baltimore dude was announcing my category. It was already a surreal feeling with the nomination but to actually win was unbelievable and certainly a life-moment I’ll always cherish.
But here’s the bottom line: We ALL want and should be recognized for the work we do! We want to know our purpose in life, what are we here to do and what is our role?! Most of us would just like a little recognition from our peers, our bosses and our friends and family especially when so many of you work sooooo damn hard juggling many hats and many responsibilities. You have dreams, plans and goals you’d like to achieve! List them out on paper and prioritize them ASAP, you can’t achieve what you don’t see! And if there is anyway I can help you towards your goal I’m easy to reach on twitter @marioarmstrong or message me on FaceBook. Many of you may have had to deal with life or career obstacles, doors closed and opportunities lost – all I can tell you is from my experience, you have to keep pushing, be willing to adjust, don’t let fear paralyze you and you must be relentless about achieving your goals without sacrificing your morals and integrity.
I certainly wouldn’t even be writing this post if it wasn’t for soooo many of you!!!! So, I just wanted to say THANKS to ALL of you! All of you in some way have made an impact on my career, have helped to shape who I am and have supported me, Nicole, our business, my content and my mission in some way over the years and I SINCERELY, SINCERELY appreciate that! I will never forget it and will continue to give back to others the way you have for me!
We are pleased to work with Ramon Ray, CEO and editor of SmallBizTechnology.com, journalist, and technology evangelist, to bring you new Small Biz tips. Each week they’ll be sharing videos and articles featuring hot topics, products and trends in small business.
Smallbiztechnology.com on the Mobile Tech Tools SMBs Can Use
iTwin: Secure Remote File Sharing With USB Gadget
Are You Backing Up Your Data? Here’s Why You Should
