Hey, welcome to this week’s special episode of Between the Bytes! We’re here at Top Golf, so a little bit informal to shake things up. Today we’ll be giving you guys updates on Microsoft, Alphabet and lastly a Wisconsin company that’s offering bio implants to employees, among other things.
Tech News
To start us off this week we have some interesting news from Microsoft. They have backtracked on an announcement that they were going to get rid of Microsoft Paint. That’s right. The software that’s been around since 1985 that you used to scribble on and color on with all those great tools back in Elementary School. They were going to shutter it. It wasn’t going to be part of Windows 10 anymore. But, after an outpouring of love (their words, not ours) they decided that it will be available for download. People will still be able to use it and enjoy their paint projects.
Next, Alphabet, so Google and YouTube’s parent company, announced yesterday that they have over 21% of revenue growth compared to last year. They’re now a twenty-six-billion-dollar company. They’re going to be doing much more of an emphasis towards pushing mobile ad searching. Second, they’ll be emphasizing a lot more things with YouTube right now, such as streaming, adding a lot of YouTube shows for YouTube Red subscribers and testing a bunch of different things out on that platform as well.
There was a recent article that just came out about states with the highest risk or highest rate of malware infections. The top three states who we noticed have a high rate of malware infections are New Hampshire, Colorado and Virginia. New Hampshire has a 201% higher chance of getting a malware infection than the average state. We’ll put the whole list up for you guys to see it. But, it’s something to be aware of. Some states have more risk. This could be due to user error, the age of computers in those areas or just the type of scams that happen to go around in those states.
Next, like we said, a local Wisconsin company. They’re called Three Square Market. They’re giving the option to employees to utilize bio implants for scan identification at work, to check in and to make purchases. It’s being used to replace access cards for coming in and out of the building.
The last bit of news is a local piece from Utah Business Magazine. They are announcing a baseline plan about the point of the mountain. A lot of us probably have to deal with the point of the mountain every day in our commute or in other ways such as how congested it’s getting, even with the new upgrades. This plan envisioned what the area would look like in 2050. It’s pretty interesting to look at. You’ll see that there are a lot more roads. They’ve expanded roads like Redwood Road, I-15 and the Mountain View Corridor that’s extended all the way to Saratoga Springs. It’s really interesting to look at how much the area is growing and plans to grow. This is all an anticipation of further housing development and also big development in business. Where we see the rise of Silicon Slopes. We talked about that here before and how the tech industry is growing here in Utah. Utah needs to grow along with that and diversify.
Product Insider
Nest Cam – a family of products from Nest, including the thermostat and CO monitor. They offer several camera options. There is the indoor version which can be just sat on any surface. They also have a mountable version and an outdoor version. Camera setup is really easy. You just take it out of the box, plug it in and download the Nest app. You’ll use this same app to control the thermostat. In the app you’ll be able to navigate to the settings. You’ll add a new device, connecting via Bluetooth. The app will then connect to your Wi-Fi once you have it set up. The camera image will appear along with the thermostat or whatever other devices you may have. You can click it to view it. And here you can see we have a live stream out our window of us filming right now. The camera features voice recording as well. Because of this there is a two-way talk feature. By pressing & holding this feature a voice will carry through the camera.
There’s a lot of great features that come with this. It’s got a pretty wide angle lens. It also has a night vision mode. If you put it in a baby’s room, for example, you can keep an eye on a little one. There’s also a feature with the Nest Aware. It allows you to look back at different clips over the past 30 days. There is a subscription fee with Nest Aware. It might be worth it if you’re worried about looking back or having memories to record. It also allows you to grab certain clips and save them locally to your phone. Otherwise, it’s a really simple product. It’s really easy to use. It’s great for home security. Or as a really easy baby monitor, because there is two-way audio. It’s available in stores today for $200.
Featured Guest Section
Today we have our very own Bert Baker. He’s a team lead here at Executech and he’s been with the company for almost four years now. Give us a rundown of what you do here at Executech, what brought you here and your journey.
Baker: I’ve been here for about four years. I’m a team lead. I’m currently moving to the Seattle area to start up a branch there, which is exciting. We have clientele already up there. I almost have a full schedule with more prospects.
Give us a rundown of your last four years here. How did you become a team lead? What does a team lead entail?
Baker: I started out just like any other consultant. I had my clients. I did my my time. And I got involved. Over time I climbed the ladder. I had some trials. Some were good experiences and some were tough experiences. I was lucky enough to get involved and here I am.
Can you give us an example of what it’s like dealing with an extensive project here?
Baker: I had one a couple years ago. The client had one server that basically managed 10 servers and it was failing. They weren’t really prepared for that. They were trying to save some money so they scaled back on some backups, some support. It ended up biting them in the rear. We had to do an emergency project over the Christmas timeline. Literally, the timeline was from the Christmas party through Christmas Day. We were in a big time crunch to make the transition from one system to another because there were failed hard drives. One more failed hard drive and their whole system would have been bust.
Executech to the rescue! Lastly Bert, to send us off here is we’d like to get a little closer look into who you are. What TV shows, books, podcasts, anything that you’re listening to?
Baker: I like camping it out, being a nerd. I also hiking and backpack camping. Right now I’m rereading the fifth book in the Game of Thrones. I’m a fan of the show as well. But, books are always better.
Bert, we wish you luck in Seattle. Thanks for joining us today on Between the Bytes.
Tech Tip of the Week
This week’s tech tip is to download a password manager. Browsers have different plugins available where you can download a password manager. It’s encrypted and it keeps all your passwords in one place. It keeps all your information safe. Every personal bit that you put online it keeps it safe with those encrypted passwords.
We’re sorry to run out of here, but we got some golfing to do. Have a good week. We’ll see you next week.
