Flawl3s Data & Connectivity

Kickstarter: Investment Resource

December 21, 2011 in Tech News

A revolutionary mechanism for funding independent projects, films, inventions, fashion designs, and publications has arrived. Kickstarter, “an online threshhold pledge system for funding creative projects,” has funded a “diverse array of endeavors, ranging from indie film and music, to journalism, solar energy technology and food-related projects.”It’s a website that lets everyday people make investments in projects they think are interesting to help them get off the ground. Investments are usually small, with supporters usually getting early access to a product or other incentives when the project gets completed. Kickstarter.com launched in April 2009 and has proven effective for many innovative self-starters just looking for the monetary backing to get their projects on the market. Its founders are Perry Chen, Yancey Strickler, and Charles Adler.

In order to post a project on the site, an application must be completed. Kickstarter provides guidelines for the types of projects that may gain approval. The project owners choose a target minimum investment goal and a deadline to reach that goal. If the goal is reached by the deadline, the money pledged by donors is collected via Amazon Payments and the money is released to the project owners. A U.S. bank account is required in order to initate a project. Kickstarter keeps 5% of the funds raised and Amazon charges an additional 3-5% for its services. If the target minimum is not achieved, no payments are distributed to the project owners. Sponsors are advised, however, to use their own judgment in choosing which projects to fund as there is no guarantee that those who post their projects on Kickstarter will deliver on the project or use the acquired funds to follow through on the project.

Kickstarter has raised $75 million dollars for over 10,000 projects since April 2009. The project success rate is 44%. More recently, Kickstarter has proven especially effective for Steve Issacs, the inventor of a new silicone based keyboard for the iPad called TouchFire (see blog piece created on December 19, 2011). He raised $201,400 to get the production of his invention underway. His target minimum was only $10,000. Indeed, Kickstarter has proven to be the financial kick inventors can turn to for turning ideas into realities.

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TouchFire for iPads

December 19, 2011 in Tech News

If you’re an avid iPad user, you’re probably familiar with the difficulty in using the touch screen keyboard. Sure the keyboard is useful for short paragraphs and facebook updates, but let’s be honest, you can hardly write a decent paper or a lengthy email without it being riddled with numerous spelling and grammar mistakes innate in any typing done via touch screen keyboards. Fortunately for iPad lovers everywhere, Steve Issacs was troubled with this same issue and got to work on a new keyboard for the iPad to ease pains of iPad typing.

It’s name: TouchFire. A keyboard made from stretchy silicone material, that’s small, light, and unobstrusive. It responds easily to your finger taps and fits perfectly when placed over your iPad’s on-screen virtual keypad. It’s purpose is to simply facilitate the ease of typing; functioning like a regular keyboard so that your fingers do not trigger the typing of random letters and numbers when they are rested over the keypad. A recent prototype brought to the Associated Press reveals the keyboard’s simplistic outward appearance, just a flexible keyboard with some rigid plastic on the side. But it’s latent features include small bumps on the underside of the keyboard’s silicone keys for the purpose of providing fingers with the necessary amount of resistance, and a magnetic bottom and sides so it sits right on top of the iPad 2′s virtual keypad without sliding around (the iPad 2 has a magnetic face). For first generation iPad users, a nonslip layer on the bottom of TouchFire maintains it’s position.

Some skeptics say the market is overpopulated with iPad keyboards already, so how is this keyboard any different? Investors disagree. TouchFire has acquired $201,400 from investors to transform it from a protoype into a real device, which is 20 times more than the amount of funds it was expected to raise. Issac utilized Kickstarter to raise the necessary funds, “a website where entrepreneurs and artists solicit funding for their projects and often give rewards in exchange, such as a limited-edition poster or first version of a product,” (more about this revolutionary fund raising mechanism in tomorrow’s blog piece). Once Issace and his business partner, Brad Melmon, decide on a manufacturer, the device will be shipped out to investors by January and then available to consumers for purchase as soon as possible thereafter. It’s estimated retail price is currently $45.

Tags: computer, iPad, keyboard, keypad, TouchFire
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Spyware and Adware

December 15, 2011 in Computer Performance

If you’ve ever contracted a computer virus you’ve experienced the wrenching pain of completely wiping your hard drive, shelling out hundreds of dollars to computer experts for removal, or, worst of all, parting with your virus infested computer to replace it with a new one. I’m sure that by now we all understand the devastating effects a virus can have. But what about Spyware and Adware. These can have just as dilapidating effects if left untreated.

By definition Spyware is ”a type of malware that can be installed on computers, and which collects small pieces of information about users without their knowledge.” Adware or advertising-supported software is “any software package which automatically plays, displays, or downloads advertisements to a computer.” The purpose of Adware is to generate revenue for its author. Adware by itself is not malignant, however, sometimes adware comes integrated with spyware. Some of the effects of spyware include interference with user control, installation of unwanted software, redirection of web browser activity, or change of computer settings resulting in slow connection speeds, different home pages, or complete loss of internet connection or functionality of other programs. Spyware also collectes your personal information for distribution to its creator. According to Microsoft, these malicious programs are responsible for 50% of all crashes. If you do not remove spyware from your computer system, then, ultimately, it will infect most of the files. Thus it should not be ignored.

To find out if your computer has contracted spyware, malware, or a virus download Microsoft’s FREE Safety Scanner http://www.microsoft.com/security/scanner/en-us/default.aspx.

If you find your computer infested with spyware remember Flawl3s Data & Connectivity specializes in the removal of spyware, malware, and viruses.

Tags: adware, computer, flawl3s, malware, performance, removal, spyware, virus
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Electronic Medical Records

December 14, 2011 in Electronic Medical Records

2012 is just around the corner and if you’re a healthcare provider you realize that the deadline to comply with the Federal Electronic Medical Records (EMR) Mandate is just 2 years away. The mandate was included in the Stimulus bill passed by Congress in 2009 and stipulates that all patient medical records must be converted into electronic format by 2014.

The rationale behind the law is simple; the government wants to ensure easy access for patients to their medical records and facilitate the exchange of health information. For instance, a physician who does not know that a specific test was completed on a patient earlier by another provider may duplicate the same service causing extra expense, wasted time, and futile effort. When EMR’s go live, the physican will be able to see this information by a simple click of a button (well there’ll be more steps than just one click). “The premise is that, over time, electronic records will reduce the cost of medical care and increase the efficiencies of the administrative processes that surround medical information generation and usage.”

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act or the ARRA was recently passed aimed at creating more funding and incentives for healthcare professionals or physicians who adopt EMR by 2014. Those in the medical field who are unable to upgrade themselves to electronic record technologies will be levied a hefty penalty beginning in 2015. Don’t let this be your office. Contact Flawl3s Data & Connectivity today. We have the tools and the know-how to get you in full compliance with the EMR mandate.

Tags: computer, data, Doctor, EHR, Electronic Health Records, Electronic Medical Records, EMR, Healthcare, medical provider, network, records
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Improve your Computer’s Performance

December 13, 2011 in Computer Performance

Bump up your Computer’s performance by trimming back start up programs that are unnecessary. You can investigate and disable startup programs using System Configuration.
Step 1. Click the Start button and type “System” in the Search box.
Step 2. Select System Configuration.
Step 3. Select the Startup tab. As you can see, the Startup tab provides a straightforward listing of the …programs that automatically start up on your system.
Step 4. Disable start-up programs by clicking the adjacent check box.
Step 5. Click Apply
Step 6. Click OK. You will be prompted to restart your computer. Restart your computer to enable the changes to take effect.

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