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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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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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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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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