1-800-HOSTING Blog » Marketing http://blog.800hosting.com Inside 1-800-HOSTING Wed, 02 Nov 2011 17:00:58 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 Voice Recognition in the Work Place http://blog.800hosting.com/2011/10/voice-recognition-in-the-work-place/ http://blog.800hosting.com/2011/10/voice-recognition-in-the-work-place/#comments Mon, 24 Oct 2011 15:24:30 +0000 John Cunningham http://blog.800hosting.com/?p=2180

If I could have three wishes, one of them would surely be 100% accurate voice recognition with every electronic device that I interact with. I don’t mind typing but given the choice, I would much prefer to speak my commands rather than have to type them into a keyboard or hammer them out on an iPhone or iPad.

Voice recognition is obviously in its infancy but it is becoming quite good considering the tools we have to work with. In fact this blog post is being dictated into an iPad with the headphones that come with the iPad and so far it has been 100% accurate. I agree it could get confusing for a computer to decipher commands if you’re in a crowded room or there is loud music playing in the background or any other number of situations that might not be applicable to voice recognition.

That said how nice would it be to wake up in the morning and say, “turn on shower”. Or if you’re laying in bed at night and you want the lights off, instead of getting up to walk across the room you say, “turn off the lights”. How about you say, “did I remember to lock the doors” and the computer says “no, the back door is unlocked, would you like me to lock it for you now”.

It almost sounds a little like being lazy on the surface but I think it goes much deeper than that if you really ponder the possibilities. Steve Jobs seemed to be headed in the right direction before his untimely passing and I suspect that in the not-too-distant future, keyboard will go the way of the eight track.

Imagine how much we would save on hand sanitizer and carpal tunnel syndrome treatments.

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]]> http://blog.800hosting.com/2011/10/voice-recognition-in-the-work-place/feed/ 0 Google+ http://blog.800hosting.com/2011/08/google/ http://blog.800hosting.com/2011/08/google/#comments Thu, 04 Aug 2011 18:36:34 +0000 Christopher Leisure http://blog.800hosting.com/?p=2123 I’m not really a fan of Facebook, or even Myspace (Does that still exist?) but recently converting to Google+ I’ve found it to be pretty cool. So far the interface could use work, features added, and security options expanded, but the great thing about its early development is that we Google+ users get to see the interface in its infancy, and knock the tires on it. Much like was done on Gmail. The only thing keeping Google+ from being used instead of Facebook for social media is that it’s by invite only still, and some users just don’t want to convert over. I guess that is the same situation as with Myspace users to Facebook, but eventually I think Google+ will be pretty competitive with Facebook for the social media market.

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]]> http://blog.800hosting.com/2011/08/google/feed/ 0 Using a Content Management System (CMS) http://blog.800hosting.com/2011/08/using-a-content-management-system-cms/ http://blog.800hosting.com/2011/08/using-a-content-management-system-cms/#comments Mon, 01 Aug 2011 15:17:04 +0000 John Cunningham http://blog.800hosting.com/?p=2090

Content management systems have been around for many years and while they have their pitfalls, they also offer a tremendous advantage over hand coded HTML websites. The primary difference is that the content management system provides you with a web-based interface to modify the contents of your website. If you are unfamiliar with HTML, this prospect might scare you. However, if you know how to use email than you have enough skills to use a content management system and update the content on your website by yourself.

Even designers are using content management systems for the final product because it’s much easier to hand off the completed website and a fully functioning back end control panel that empowers their clients to make changes without having to call the designer every time they want to add a new sentence or change a heading. There are lots of content management systems available but WordPress is probably the most commonly used. It’s easy to install, easy to manage and even easier to use. If you have a complex website that is database driven or have some special function that you think might be incompatible with WordPress, it’s very likely that the developer can integrate that functionality into WordPress and still give you enough control to make changes to your content without whacking all of the code that they created.

The thing that blows me away about Word press and other content management systems is that there is literally an army of developers who create widgets and plug-ins for WordPress and most if not all, are free. So if you need to add a scheduling function to your website, you can typically just search the plug-ins and find one that you like and that is rated very highly by other users, then easily add that your website yourself. This whole process could take (5) or (10) minutes as opposed to (5) or (10) days with a developer, and your cost is nothing.

Another cool thing about WordPress is that it runs on open source operating systems (you can run it on Windows too) and WordPress itself is totally free. So you can essentially run this free application on a server running an open source operating system and open-source web server software like Apache. WordPress is also a very light weight application so it will only use a small amount of resources on the server. This doesn’t mean that WordPress is not capable of serving up millions of webpages because it certainly is. In fact, there are tremendous amount of very popular blogs and websites running WordPress right now that serve tens if not hundreds of millions of page views monthly.

While WordPress is not for everyone and content management systems in general are not always a good fit, they’re certainly worth a look if you’re tired of waiting around for your Web designer or developer to return your phone call or email because you need to update the telephone number on your website.

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]]> http://blog.800hosting.com/2011/08/using-a-content-management-system-cms/feed/ 0 There simply must be an easier way… http://blog.800hosting.com/2011/07/there-simply-must-be-an-easier-way/ http://blog.800hosting.com/2011/07/there-simply-must-be-an-easier-way/#comments Tue, 19 Jul 2011 22:33:00 +0000 Jay Ellison http://blog.800hosting.com/?p=2023 Used car shopping, that is.  With all the usual suspects including cars.com, eBay motors, autotrader and new come-along driversselect to name a few of the online options. out car shoppingThis isn’t easy.  And I’m really pretty open.  Many models will meet the requirements.  I just want to see the options available in the marketplace. Then dig through carmax, craigslist and the many local dealer websites for pre-owned inventory. It’s positively mind boggling.

Sure, it’s easier than driving all over town, but I don’t want to drive all over the Internet either.  In this day and age, there simply must be an easier way.

I’m sure many will tell me what it is.

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]]> http://blog.800hosting.com/2011/07/there-simply-must-be-an-easier-way/feed/ 0 Sometimes it’s better to say, “Sorry, but no…” http://blog.800hosting.com/2011/07/sometimes-its-better-to-say-sorry-but-no/ http://blog.800hosting.com/2011/07/sometimes-its-better-to-say-sorry-but-no/#comments Fri, 01 Jul 2011 20:40:06 +0000 Jay Ellison http://blog.800hosting.com/?p=1763 Love means never having to say you’re sorry, but particularly in business, sometimes you just have to say, “no”.  We’ve all been there, when a new prospective client tries to push the envelope to include services, features or products beyond your company’s comfort zone.  And while some requests might seem simple enough to the sales person wanting to MAKE THE SALE, if it doesn’t ruffle the feathers of your co-workers who have to support what was just sold, odds are good you’ll lose the new client when his expectations aren’t being met. sorry Best to just stick with what you know you can deliver successfully, which means, sometimes you just have to say, “Sorry, but no…”.

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]]> http://blog.800hosting.com/2011/07/sometimes-its-better-to-say-sorry-but-no/feed/ 0 Data Center Experiences http://blog.800hosting.com/2011/06/data-center-experiences/ http://blog.800hosting.com/2011/06/data-center-experiences/#comments Tue, 28 Jun 2011 14:21:38 +0000 Christopher Leisure http://blog.800hosting.com/?p=1651 I’ve been in this industry for quite a while and have used many network providers, colocation providers, and hosting companies. We at 1-800-HOSTING even maintain presences at other providers for monitoring, custom projects, remote backups, etc… and sometimes the service at times has been less than stellar. Here are a few of the experiences I’ve had throughout the years and how we use this as motivation to make sure our customers don’t experience the pitfalls I’ve suffered through.

 

  • Answer the support telephone: When offering phone support it is important to make sure that someone is available to answer it. Nothing can be more frustrating than not being able to get someone on the phone quickly during an emergency.
  • Respond to emails promptly, even if it’s just a “Hey we’re looking into this and we’ll get back with you soon.” This lets me know that someone has looked at the issue and is aware. Setting a time of when I should expect a response is even better so I can plan out my already busy day.
  • Send maintenance notifications out with as much notice as possible. If it’s an emergency even an hour’s notice is much better than none at all.
  • When an outage occurs give as much information possible as to what caused it and what is being done to correct the issue. When I get brief and non-technical responses at times it makes me feel unsure if you know exactly what is happening.
  • If an outage is due to a human error just say so! I’d much rather hear that someone has made a mistake (it happens to everyone) than get a vague response about what caused the issue.

 

 

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]]> http://blog.800hosting.com/2011/06/data-center-experiences/feed/ 0 Back by Popular Demand http://blog.800hosting.com/2010/02/back-by-popular-demand/ http://blog.800hosting.com/2010/02/back-by-popular-demand/#comments Mon, 22 Feb 2010 16:37:28 +0000 Jay Ellison http://blog.800hosting.com/?p=1304 shopping-cart1-800-HOSTING has implemented the server & services online Configurator on www.800hosting.com with option details, prices and checkout functions - allowing clients to shop at their leisure for Dedicated Servers, Managed Servers, Rapid Deployment Servers and Service Options.  Learn about the specifics of various options by clicking any “Tell me more” link, add them to your server configuration, select quantities of each where applicable in the cart, and submit your order online for processing.  Check it out for yourself by selecting any category of server from the Products & Services page.

Jay – Sales

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