Archive for Network Security
Alice in Wonderland: X2 Technologies Receives IMDB Credits for IT Support
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X2 Technologies receives IMDB credit for IT support on Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland.
The premier Bay Area IT Systems Integrators are proud of our new IMDB credits for IT Support on Tim Burton’s rendition of Lewis Carroll’s “Alice in Wonderland.”
The cast include, Mia Wasikowaska, Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Anne Hathaway, Stephen Fry, Christopher Lee, Michael Sheen, Alan Rickman, Matt Lucas, Timothy Spall and Barbara Windsor.
It is currently in post-production and set to be released March 5, 2010.
X2 Technologies is Qube! certified and has extensive experience with Maya, Mays Extensible Language Plugins (MEL), render farms and essentially any and all hardware and software components required to produce stunning animation, CG, FX results under budget and ahead of schedule.
Please give us a call if you have an FX IT issue you’d like to discuss.
Happy New Year.
Smartest IT Guy Ever Notes 10/15/09
Posted by: | CommentsGoogle Wave: will start as a consumer product and move to enterprise but Gmail took a year to exit Beta so don’t hold your breath.
The future of Flash: HTML 5 is coming
Twitter founder Biz Stone does not want to be sold. Would you sell?
Nokia loses $834 million dollar quarterly loss. They’re a low-cost, ghetto handset maker. They’ve held on too long to Symbian.
The iPhone needs to have the ability to run simultaneous applications. RIM with their SDK is exposing the capability and should be out in the next year.
If Steve owned Nokia he’d buy Palm!
We’re running out of reasons to run Mozilla. Just because it’s “not Internet Explorer” isn’t enough. IE is patching their security holes so Mozilla needs to step up their game.
Safari is still not there from a compatibility standpoint. Opera even runs on the iPhone and Chrome is pretty dang good.
Cloud computing and cloud storage: dangerous or reliable? Look for end-to-end encryption.
Oracle is gobbling up a lot of companies: Sun, etc. They are moving towards providing and end to end solution. Give them a year or so to digest.
Verizon and LTE is getting me excited! I bet T-Mobile and then Sprint will move towards LTE. Broadcom and Ericcson can get together to really bring out 4G in late 2009 and wide in 2010. The Japanese are rolling out GSM and then probably LTE to unify the whole world on a 4G platform
Check out the podcast for more details.
X2 Recommends MailStreet for Hosted Exchange
Posted by: | CommentsTheir SLA is top-notch and Exchange is the unifying platform for all group shared information…but we recommend not owning it! Active Directory works. But outsource it.
MailStreet charges $10/mo for a 500 MB mailbox with SPAM filtering built in.
Exchange starts at about $5,000 and the server costs about $5,000 so what’s the ROI for a 20-person firm at $200/mo?
So until you get up to around a 200 person company just outsource your Exchange.
Planning Your Office Move? Stay Productive With These Technology Tips.
Posted by: | CommentsWash the cat…Clean the pool…Shingle the roof.
These are just SOME of the things I’d rather do than move, especially when it comes to planning and coordinating everything it takes to relocate office PCs, servers, monitors, pull cables, ethernet drops, printers, coordinate power and cooling and telephony and who gets to sit by the window!
Pah-leeeze! Gimme a break.
But an office move can be a good thing when it is planned ahead of time. (If you’re moving at the last minute either set aside more money or ask the judge to cut you some slack…but I digress.)
Besides planning ahead of time – and flossing more often, eating less fat, and exercising more – you should also be flexible. In other words, “IT” happens. You may miss a drop, have a dead outlet, cables may not reach, you may misplace the keys, a machine or monitor or cables may get broken or lost in the move. IT happens so build in some flex time.
Upgrade. Why drag 3 year old equipment around on a move? Use this time to demo or evaluate new equipment that will probably have an ROI of one year or less. Neobits is one of our favorite partners and they offer free demos on their VoIP equipment that is saving our clients THOUSANDS of dollars!
Technology gets cheaper every year so use your move as an excuse to consolidate servers with blade servers or virtualization. Switch or update your VoIP platform. Improve worker productivity and security with a new wireless infrastructure and a telecommuting program for workers that may be “stranded” if you are moving more than a few miles away.
Inform your clients and prospects that you are moving and that they may experience delays in reaching you. While a great firm like X2 can minimize or prevent this from happening it’s always better to err on the side of caution and keep your clients in the know!
Leverage. Hire the best people you can to support the move and let your new, upgraded technology do the heavy lifting. If it has been more than 24 months since you moved there are new tools, programs and techniques that can make your move easier than before. X2 knows those tips and tricks because we have used them to help firms such as Twitter and Scribd plan and implement their moves recently.
For a free consultation please give us a shout.
