Author: A. Jay

I’ve shared recently how email is arguably one of the most efficient forms of business communication (and sometimes personal as well). And sometimes, it’s helpful to have more than one inbox. I have a personal inbox, one for work, one for junk mail, one for school, and another for web work. Sometimes managing all those…

I read with interest this morning an article on Fox News about cloud storage and the best ways to organize and back up your files. For reference, here is a link to the article: https://www.foxnews.com/tech/best-ways-organize-cloud-storage-files More interesting than the article are the comments at the end of it. It’s clear that people are pretty about…

I added a new iPad to the line up recently, and this one could be a game changer. The previous main stay had been an iPad Mini that I got because I had a need for ultimate portability, and something that was going to function very much like a notepad if you will, and it’s…

These days, I enjoy much of the software the Microsoft publishes, I’ve especially been enjoying Edge. It’s Chromium engine brings it in line with other major browsers, but it doesn’t seem to carry their footprint, but it also isn’t just screaming with innovation either. It’s a browser after all. So it was with interest that…

The changes in today’s workspace seem never-ending. One of the biggest changes in some of the most forward-facing companies involve our email inbox. Collaboration today is more virtual than it’s been in the past. Even among people who are not working remotely, there’s an increase in the use of tools like Teams, Slack, and Zoom.…

I heard someone recently describe the job of an IT department as being responsible for presenting a smorgasbord of solutions to an end user and letting them pick what they want. Nothing could be further from the truth. I had the opportunity recently to purchase tires for my car. I went in the store and…

As our world becomes more mobile, and as we rely less on a central work location, something that’s becoming very important to me is mobile document management.  I rely on having certain documents available to me wherever I am on whatever device I’m using. Effectively, there are three main solutions, Microsoft’s Azure and OneDrive, Google’s…

These days, there is a lot of different work being done in a lot of different ways. We’re doing things from home that maybe 5 years ago we would have said were impossible. I do support work. That’s almost always been phone based, and historically it’s been really tech heavy. I’ve had to have multiple…

How  people and companies spend money on technology is driven by what they technology means to them, what it does for them, what they’d like to get out of it, and how they expect it to impact their environment.  But how do you get someone to honestly evaluate those things?  It’s been said after all…

These are different times we’re living in.I’ve never been an advocate of working from home.  I appreciate the work/home separation and I’ve never really wanted to bring my work into my home.  But these are different days, and working from home has become the norm for much of the country. Among the most important considerations…

I’ve been thinking about passwords recently, and am changing the way I use them. It used to be that I used one password for everything, admittedly a horrible practice from a security standpoint. Besides being a bad practice, when I had to change my password I had to change all of my passwords. It was…

I am admittedly an iOS guy. Let me just start by saying that. I read with interest everything I come across about the next “iPad killer” and about how iPads are not legitimate laptop replacements. And I notice that many of the authors who post like that say something about how they could never get…

Technology is not only fun for me, it’s also practical. I like technology because it’s convenient and it helps me organize and manage my life. One of the things I’ve been doing more of in recent years is mobile payment. It’s so easy to pull out your phone at the register or show it to…

Or… Creation vs. Consumption. In the ongoing discussion in EdTech about Chromebooks vs. iPads, one of the discussion points that keeps coming up is that Chromebooks are for creation of content, iPads are about consumption of content.  On and on it goes… There’s an interesting EdSurge article where they cite three reasons why Chromebooks are so much…

Working in public education is an eye opening experience.  Naturally, everybody wants the best education that can be provided for their children, and school districts strive to meet that objective.  But when it comes to technology, we seem to want to have our cake and eat it too.  This is a technological age we live in, so…

The one thing you can be certain of when dealing with technology is that there will be change.  If the usage and devices themselves didn’t change, the way that people use them sure does.  Telecommuting is becoming a way of life in some industries, and the we’re using our devices in ways no one would…

I’m a technologist.  A mobilist too, and also a Mac aficionado, and as such, I like my technology to work.  It’s aggravating when things don’t work the way they’re supposed to. I often wonder about why stuff fails.  Why doesn’t it work the way it’s supposed to?  This is something I’ve put a fair bit…

There’s a recent trend in many companies to use Linux as a desktop solution in their environments.  They do this often to save money on licensing, not usually because it is a more usable solution.  It isn’t limited to desktops.  As virtual servers and cloud environments become more popular, Open Source solutions are used there…

The transformation of technology has long been a fascination of mine.  How we go from one platform to another, or update from an older architecture to a new. Cloud services are becoming more popular, and they’re an amazing enabler of transformation, and can definitely ease the transition, but what happens when there’s not a cloud in…

Love them or hate them, Apple is a company like few others.  Their ability to influence trends in technology has been demonstrated time and time again. The recent announcement of the Apple Watch is something that is going to have a similar impact I believe. Personally, I’m not 100% on board with that Apple Watch…

I’ve always been fascinated with mobile technology, and how people use technology in a society that is increasingly on the go.  From back in the Palm Pilot days I’ve watched with interest as hardware and software changes, and how people adapt and use technology to stay connected.  People are more connected now than ever before.…