What Affects your Internet Speed

Fast speed internet has more or less permeated through the country, with the exception of a few areas. But the days of dial up have gone, and with that, the days of extremely ridiculously slow internet speeds.

We subscribe to internet plans with ISPs that compete against each other, so you know you have a choice when choosing an ISP. But when you suddenly notice that your internet speed is getting worse with each passing day, and you don’t suspect your ISP, what other reasons could be the behind your slow internet speeds?

This infographic created by BlueGadgetTooth clearly lists out ten possible reasons for your slow internet speed. Ranging from simply upgrading your internet subscription plan, to upgrading your computer to something newer that can handle the loads you place on it, or even just upgrading your wireless router to a newer model that can do the job more efficiently, many times the factors are simple reasons and the solutions to them even simpler still.

Why depend on customer service to provide the fix after endless phone calls, emails and basically hassles to just get a simple answer. With this infographic, you don’t have to wonder why. Go through the list to see the possible culprits behind your slow internet speeds, and hopefully you’ll be able to narrow down the factors to a few.

This will also help you in coming up with a viable solution.

Why go through paragraphs of endless text? I know words start fading into one another, especially when it’s to do with something I know nothing about, but an infographic? This could make me sound super smart when dealing with slow internet speed issues, just by taking ten minutes to skim through it.

Finding the solution to your slow internet speed could never be easier.

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Microsoft's year of change

On Feb 04, 2014, Satya Nadella was appointed as the new CEO of Microsoft, changing the future direction of Microsoft. The organization had to change, the technology industry itself changes everyday, technology is upgrade, reinvented or simply created from scratch. If an organisation is to thrive in the field of technology, it must adapt and most importantly, it must innovate staying constantly ahead of all it's competitors.

Microsoft's past success has been built on that ability to innovate. For 30 years they have led the creation of new technology, creating products that met consumer demand. Their technology facilitated better business, a trait that has seen them corner the enterprise technology market. That innovation is core to Nadella's appointment and is crucial for Microsoft as the company enters the next chapter in product innovation and growth. The forseeable future of technology will be cloud led, putting Microsoft in a strong position. Nadella was ultimately responsible for the companies strategic and technical shift to cloud, overseeing the development of one of the worlds largest cloud infrastructures, Windows Azure.

The future for Microsoft looks exciting, if not yet certain, but before we dream of flying DeLoreans and robot butlers, lets take a closer look at that past history that has taken Microsoft to where they stand today. Using the follow infographic developed by Firebrand Training, let us go on a whistle-stop tour looking at the history of Microsoft Technology. Take a look at the first desktop operating system, discover email management products you didn't know existed, and puzzle at what exactly a relation database management product is.

This article was written by Edward Jones, Technical Writer for Firebrand Training. Edward is tasked with servicing the information needs of the technology industry, and spends his days writing how-to guides, news and opinion articles.

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High Amounts of DDoS Attacks in 2013

The year of 2013 saw high amounts of Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks. Beginning in March, finance, banking, and insurance companies were the focus of an assault that lasted for 14.6 days. Through the year, the attacks ranged from 20.6 hours to 5.4 hours at the end of the year.

The finance, banking, and insurance industries faced the brunt of these attacks towards the beginning of the year, whereas media and entertainment saw these types of attacks around the end of the year. The majority of attack vectors were User Datagram Protocol (UDP), SYN and Domain Name System (DNS).

The floods and the peak bandwidth ranged between 111gbps and 179gpbs. Some saw a peak attack of 144 million packets-per-second. These attacks focused on major corporations in the fields of finance, marketing, or politics, as well as various social media platforms and hubs. DDos attacks target massive online shops or host sites for independent sellers. It is a detriment to business and creates a lot of stress for those who fall prey to these forms of attacks.

Created by the marketing team at Prolexic Technologies.

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7 Reasons Why Atlanta Needs Google Fiber

A few weeks ago, Google, the world's largest search engine, said 24 cities, including nine Atlanta cities, were under consideration for Google Fiber, the super-fast internet service. Cities being considered include Atlanta, Avondale Estates, Brookhaven, College Park, Decatur, East Point, Hapeville, Sandy Springs and Smyrna.

Southern Web, an Atlanta-based web design and development firm, is excited about the possibility of Google Fiber coming to Atlanta. That's why we've put together this infographic, which explains all of the positives that Google Fiber could bring to Atlanta and our surrounding cities.

Increased home values, enhanced access for local schools and libraries, customer savings and some of the quickest consumer Internet connection speeds currently available in the country are just a few of the benefits we could see.

The infographic was a group venture between graphic artist Ron Griffel, content strategist Ryan Watkins and Southern Web’s Director of Internet Marketing Cullie Burris.

Ryan Watkins is a content strategist with Southern Web Group, LLC., an Atlanta-based web development, design and marketing firm. In his spare time, Ryan enjoys blogging, staying up-to-date with the latest social media trends and outdoor adventuring.

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Phone, Fax and Web Chat - The Evolution of Customer Service

If there's one job that will always be in demand, it's customer service. We can automate the production of many products, and Amazon is even toying with automating the delivery of smaller products with drones, but there's one thing that machines can't do as well as humans, and that's provide customer service.

Over the last few decades we've seen a huge amount of innovation in customer service, and today there are a huge number of different ways to contact businesses:

• Letters
• Telephone
• Fax
• Email
• Web forms
• Live chat
• Social Media

In spite of all of those contact options being available, most of us still prefer to pick up the phone. In fact, according to Maintel, who produced this fascinating infographic on modern customer service trends and the ways in which businesses are failing customers, around 79% of consumers prefer to pick up the phone instead of using other contact methods.

Over the last 20-30 years, technology has come a long way, but at the end of the day the most important thing in the customer service equation remains the same - dealing with helpful people.

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Top Reasons Why PlayStation 4 Is An Interesting Choice

Gaming consoles provide great entertainment to gaming lovers. With the advancement in technology, gaming enthusiasts are getting advanced consoles these days. PlayStation 4 from Sony Computer Entertainment is an interesting game console that was released recently.

Sophistication: PlayStation 4 is a highly sophisticated gaming device for the variety of features it has. All options are interesting and the flexibility of usage provides customers great satisfaction.

Enhanced Experience: PS4 is integrated with advanced graphics chip and processor. It also has an HDMI port and this facilitates playing games by connecting the console to high definition televisions of the day. This gives people a highly interactive playtime experience.

Rich Features: PS4 has a flash card reader and the hard drive can be upgraded. The inclusion of new features has given people high level of excitement.

Configurations: PlayStation 4 is available in two configurations including basic and premium. Premium configuration provides advanced features and specifications and is therefore expensive.

PlayStation 4 can throw away people from boredom. It is a great feel to sit with family and play games and spend time in gaming. And, PS4 has created great buzz in the entertainment market with highly advanced features and people love it a lot.

Christina Jones is a professional technical blogger and she writes regular shopping review for gaming consoles.

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How The Remote Control Has Let Do The Downfall of Society

A remote control does not have to be large to have a very controlling influence over individuals’ lives. What began as a novelty in 1898 when Nicola Tesla produced a remote-controlled boat has now morphed into a major technology. One large area in which these controllers are used is in the military.

The first drone airplane was developed in 1916 by Peter Hewitt. Since then, drones have become much more highly developed and are used throughout all the branches of the military for surveillance and for safety behind enemy lines. As soon as these drones were developed, the face of warfare changed for all of time. Today, analysts worry that war has become dehumanized as military personnel rely on remote control technology for aircrafts, bombs, missiles, sensors and more. Even civilians can be affected and towns can be destroyed by a remote-controlled device.

It concerning to many that remote controls can keep people apart and can destroy emotion-based decision making. Both military personnel and civilians are put at risk today by this otherwise fabulous piece of technology. This infographic helps people consider whether remote controls have brought more harm than good to modern societies.

This infographic was produced by Pannam Imaging.

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New Choices for Domain Names for Your Website

In the spring of 2014 a vast range of new domain name extensions are going to open up, with industry specific extensions becoming available after the dot, such as .photography, .london and .wedding.

It's likely that in time what's after the dot could become as important as what's before the dot and it allows for the whole of your domain name to have meaning.  Some of the most popular domain extensions that will be available are:

• .photography
• .london
• .web
• .services
• .ltd
• .blog
• .hotels
• .football
• .wedding
• .training
• .media
• .holiday

The Business Week article - New Domain Names are in the Works has more information on the latest domain names.

This gives you a wealth of extra choice in deciding what you want to name your website and it's likely that these extensions will be become important for SEO (appearing high with search engines) too.

Given that there's more choice in what to call your website, how do you go about deciding on your domain name?  The infographic gives some suggestions that are important to consider when deciding what to name it, both from a user-friendliness perspective and from an SEO perspective, whether you're looking to launch your website locally, nationally or internationally.

The "New choices for domain names for your website" infographic was designed by Allison Carmichael at Indigoextra Ltd, a creative multilingual web design and SEO company.  Allison has 2 boys and created the infographic to compare naming a new baby with choosing the name of your website.  It wouldn't surprise me if people put as much thought into both!

Allison lives in Montpellier, South France and is a film fanatic of all genres (although there's only a few French films she likes) and is home educating her two boys.  For work, Allison is the Art Director of Indigoextra Ltd and runs the graphic design team.

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Infographic : Giving the Trusted Windows PC its Own Spring Cleaning

In this infographic you will learn how to speed up, revive and clean up your Windows PC. You won't have to take your computer to a fancy computer wizard and shell out big bucks or give up your first born son. All you have to is sit down for an afternoon or evening and follow the steps in this infographic and look around your house for a couple of household objects to clean out some dust and you should be good.

1. First we need to actually clean out the dust and grime.
2. Then you just need to get everything up to date in your computer.
3. Now it's time to get rid of unwanted applications and big files that you don't use anymore. 
4. Go ahead and start reclaiming some space on your hard drive with the tools that Windows supplies: Disk Cleanup and Disk Defragmenter
5. Organize your files.
6. Now that everything is tidy, back it up.

Okay, that about covers it, but I'd like to leave you with one last suggestion. You can also buy a registry cleaner that will help you with this. It will schedule scans for you and do almost all of these functions for you, except the dishes and dusting of course!

Guest Author: Erin Walsh is the main blogger at PC Health Boost. She writes many articles on how to speed up and clean up pc errors. http://www.pchealthboost.com/clean_up_pc.php

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Infographic: How Automation Improves Business Performance

Automation is making professionals like receptionists, travel agents and bookkeepers a thing of the past.

Automation, essentially the practice of replacing human operators with machines, has been a reality in business since the dawn of the Industrial Revolution nearly 200 years ago. That said, the amount of automated tasks in the American business world has escalated dramatically in recent years.

The following infographic illustrates this trend, noting that between 2000 and 2010:
-1.1 million secretarial tasks were replaced with automation. In addition, 36 percent of telephone operating tasks were changed to automation. Companies that employ a live receptionist are fewer and farther between.

-54 percent of travel agent tasks were changed to automation. Who even goes to a travel agent anymore? Do such firms still exist?

-74 percent of bookkeeping tasks were changed to automation. Where once there sat an in-house bookkeeper or accountant, programs like QuickBooks and TurboTax are at the ready."

Thanks for checking out our latest infographic, and let us know if you have comments or questions

© 2014 Dolphin

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Why You Need To Get Above The Average Typing Speed

The average adult types somewhere around 40 words per minute. By comparison, a hunt and peck typist can usually max out around 20 wpm, and someone writing with a pen on paper will usually top out at around 15 wpm. Learning to properly touch type can be one of the most important things you learn in 2014.

Why?

Because the world is run by computers. Gone are the days of being able to apply for a job with no typing or computer skills, or just being able to 'get by' with some basic hunt and peck typing. Even a basic cashier's position in a grocery or department store is going to require some basic typing and computer skills. They may not be as stringent as the requirements for say, a programming or secretarial job, but they are still there.
Learning to touch type properly may be one of the most important things you ever do. It's proven that touch typists are more efficient as well. Just look at the math.

A touch typist who types 60 words per minute for 60 minutes will type approximately 3600 words, not accounting for breaks or any accuracy discrepancy.

A hunt and peck typist, typing at 20 words per minute for the same amount of time, will only type 1200 words. That is a 66% loss of efficiency.

There is a little section on a resume template that many people overlook: the applicant's words per minute typing speed. Try applying for a few computer or office jobs with a listing of 20 or 30 words per minute. Keep track of how many times your resume is overlooked, passed over, or simply thrown in the trash. With the abundance of free online training tools and games, there is no excuse for anyone over the age of 6 to not learn proper touch typing techniques and skills. It is, without a doubt, the most important skill you can learn to make you valuable in the job market.

Adam Fort is an education enthusiast. Adam's goal is to help kids areound the world to improve the typing skills.

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Preparing For Cyber Monday - Infographic

The increasing ease and popularity of online shopping has given way to the rise of a new shopping holiday, aptly named Cyber Monday. Cyber Monday is the Black Friday for e-commerce; online stores offer huge discounts on a wide variety of products for one day only. In fact, it has become so big that $1.465 billion was spent Cyber Monday alone in 2012. (Source: Doba.com)

This insightful infographic dives into the facts and figures surrounding commerce trends during Cyber Monday as well the holiday season in general, including what people preferred to buy, and how business prepare to handle the large influx of shoppers. For example, according to figures presented a majority of online shoppers (31.4%) took to their computers on Cyber Monday to buy clothing. As a business owner, this infographic offers invaluable information on attracting more customers for the shopping season, like including free shipping and investing in Google product listing ads.

The author created this infographic to inform readers on how to prepare their business for Cyber Monday.

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Infographic: A Look Inside the Accounting Industry

Although dying industries such as newspaper publishing and sales CD recording struggle to survive, the accounting industry continues to grow. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, the accounting industry projects 22 percent job growth in between 2008 and 2018. Small businesses and large corporations need accountants to reconcile transactions and sales to generate year-end fiscal reports for the tax season. Troy Group, a provider of QuickBooks check printing software, has created the following infographic to take a look inside of the world of accounting.

This infographic shows that there are at least 89,000 accounting firms established in the United States with most them providing auditing services. Since individuals and businesses are always in need of an accountant for financial purposes, it’s not surprising to see that there is an average of five employees working in most accounting firms with revenue of $154,500 generated per employee.

Thanks for checking out this infographic, and please feel free to share your thoughts, comments, or questions with us.

© 2013 TROY Group, Inc.

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Ways to Keep Your Personal Information Secure

It is estimated that 10 million individuals each year are victims of identity theft. In order to eliminate theft and fight back against fraudsters it is important to take all of the steps possible to protect your valuable information. Do not carry your Social Security card in your wallet or purse and never have a slip of paper on you that lists out your passwords to help you remember them.

All this does is give a potential hacker direct access to your accounts and information that will allow them to take advantage of you and ruin you financially. Be sure to collect your mail promptly each day so there is no opportunity for people to swipe bills and other account statements. In addition, it is a good idea to check with your various creditors and businesses you have an account with to see what they are doing to help protect your information. You can get more tips on how to prevent identity theft by reading the infographic below.

Created by Britni Zandbergen, Senior Director of Marketing at Idology.  Britni has years of experience in identity management as well as dynamic SaaS solutions.

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The Evolution of Music and Video Content Consumption

Question: How many ways are there to consume music today?
Answer: More than you can guess. The way we consume content, including music, has undergone a few changes in the past decade or so. As recently as the years between 2000 and 2005, we connected to the Internet at a speed of about 56 kbps. Today, Internet connection speeds average about 2.6 mbps. What seemed like the greatest thing since sliced bread in 2000 would seem so frustratingly slow that today’s users would be utterly appalled by the length of time it took to load a single web page. Thanks to the speed at which we can connect to the world at large, we’re consuming a great deal of content in new ways.

Desktop PCs, while still used in business and office settings, as well as many homes, are often a last resort to mobile users. We prefer to connect on the go, without being chained to a desk, using devices such as smartphones and tablets. We’re consuming the majority of our content today digitally. Whether it’s music, video, news or even books—we turn to the World Wide Web first. Take a look at the infographic below for more details on how content consumption has evolved over the past 10 to 15 years.

TorchBrowser is a free and unique software that offers you powerful browsing together with built-in media downloading and sharing features.

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Four Of The Best Productivity Tools

Most of us carry our smartphones with us every day, so it makes sense to use them for more than just making calls. Here's a quick look at six of the best productivity aids for busy office workers.

EverNote
EverNote is a free to use productivity suite which includes mobile apps, a browser plugin and a web app. Use EverNote to store notes about almost everything in the cloud, and access those notes from any device with an Internet connection.

HootSuite
Manage multiple social media accounts in one handy interface with HootSuite. Share access to your accounts with the premium package, which starts at £7.19 per month.

Remember The Milk
Remember The milk is a free mobile app that makes managing to do lists easy. Upgrade to the Pro version for $25/year to enjoy the ability to get push notifications about urgent tasks, sync your apps anywhere, and use widgets and badges to be reminded about upcoming To Do items.

Basecamp
Basecamp is the ultimate project management tool for large and small companies. You can try Basecamp for free for up to 60 days, and full accounts start at just $20/month. For that fee, you can run up to ten projects at a time, and take advantage of 3GB of cloud storage for those projects.

A Name Badges International Infographic

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From Freedom to Walled Gardens - The Evolution of The Internet

The Internet has given people from all over the world unprecedented ability to communicate with each other. Anyone can create content and share their thoughts and opinions with the world. The Internet is not controlled by any one central body, and this is something that many governments are uncomfortable with. Ideas posted online may be stored on a server thousands of miles from the place where the content creator lives, and can be copied, shared and archived by an unlimited number of users.

As this infographic shows, some governments, including those in mainland China, North Korea and the UAE have taken measures to restrict the kind of content that users can access online. Those countries restrict content that is political or religious in nature. Other countries, including several in Europe, have started to filter content too, blocking websites that contain illegal content such as child pornography or copyright file sharing sites.

The original creators of the Internet wanted information to be free, and love the widespread sharing of ideas, no matter whether they agree with those ideas or not. Freedom of communication is under threat, and the threat may be closer to home than you think.

Infographic provided by CWCS

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Beefing Up Network Security

Companies can build firewalls that keep unauthorized persons from breaking into their computer’s network system. A knowledgeable, highly skilled IT employee or computer engineer can create the firewalls, as well as password protection and biometric technology. Other good methods companies can employ include software methods and virus protection.

These companies can invest in effective physical protection methods, such as signing laptops and data storage hardware out to designated employees or logging the location of every company-owned device, including tablets, smartphones, flash drives and laptops. In addition to logging locations, the savvy company security manager will know exactly who is using the devices, where they are being used and why.

Once a device is outdated, it should not be forgotten about, because the data stored on it is just as valuable today as it was the day it was logged into the device. Every outdated laptop, smartphone, flash drive and tablet should be returned to the security manager, where it will be noted as returned, then it should be securely locked away.

Created by the marketing team at GreyHeller.

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Evolution of Invention in the Last 50 Years

In 1963, John F. Kennedy (JFK) was the president, the Beatles released their 1st single in US "Please Please Me", and Mickey Mantle signed a contract with the New York Yankees for $100,000. Society and technology has evolved quite a bit over the last 50 years, and advancements in invention have been a large driver of change. In the last 50 years between 1963 and 2012, the number of patent applications and patent grants issued by the United States Patent and Trademark Office has increased by roughly 500%.
To celebrate the innovation that has taken place over the last 50 years the patent and new product marketing experts at Innovate Product Design have come up with a very interesting infographic that explores the evolution of invention.

The infographic notes several trends over the last five decades, most notably the dramatic increase in the number of patent applications and grants. However, a spotlight is also cast on some of the most influential innovations of the last 50 years, including the commerical jetliner, the remote control (TV), cellular phones, GPS technology, and perhaps the most life-changing evolution of them all, the internet. Also, the infographic offers a useful overview of the disntinctions between the three different types of patents including, Utility Patents, Design Patents, and Plant Patents.

Enjoy this infographic, and please feel free to submit your comments or questions, including any inventions of the last five decades that you think should have been included on this list!

© 2013 Innovate Product Design

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Fascinating Finds on Ebay

If you search for it, you can find amazing stuff on Ebay! Here are some of the amazing things we’ve found on Ebay!

Joe Di Maggio’s passport! You’ll probably get arrested if you try and use it to fly abroad but for $4.8K it can be yours!

If you’ve always wanted to own a ballistic missile base but the estate agents have never been able to find the right one – you’re in luck! We found the former US ballistic missile base in Washington on sale for $750K. Not sure if the seller will budge on the asking price but try your luck.

Who doesn’t want to own their own town? We sure would but they’re rarely on sale! Well, we’ve found that a town in Texas called Albert is on sale for $3.5 million, we’d advise you to hurry up as buying a town is quite a popular activity.

Lady Thatcher wasn’t famous for having the most loyal fan group but her famous black handbag is on sale for £103K which gives the Hermes Birkin bag a run for its money! There is also a pre-historic skeleton that could be yours for just £61K! If you’ve always wanted Max the Mammoth’s skeleton – this is your chance to your hands on it but be gentle it is quite old!

Infographic brought to you by UK Packaging

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