Texas Professional IT Services LLC Blog

You may have noticed a particular icon on some of the websites you’ve visited. An orange box with what looks like waves emanating from a dot in the bottom-left corner, this icon indicates that the website uses something called RSS technology.

So, what is RSS, and what is it for?   

As comfy as it can be at times, sitting for all hours of the day isn’t something we’re built for. As a result, not only does sitting all day impact our overall health, it can functionally hurt our productivity as well. Fortunately, there are some simple exercises and activities that can be done at the workstation to help mitigate these negative outcomes. 

As critical as it is to make sure your business’ IT remains in good shape, it is just as important that you and your team members are in good shape as well. Otherwise, the aches and pains that can settle in could easily have a detrimental impact on your productivity.

From its very beginnings, technology’s purpose has been to advance and supplement our capabilities. Today, there are examples of tech fulfilling that role in everything from agriculture to manufacturing and everything in between. The advancement of 3D-printing is just one of the many, many ways that this trend of technology simplifying our basic needs has recently shown its value. Let’s discuss how the development of 3D-printed food could benefit the human race in various ways.

It isn’t unheard of for popular culture to blur the line between fiction and reality, the imaginations of the past becoming the everyday items that surround us today. Let’s consider a few technologies that first appeared in popular culture before eventually becoming mainstream.

Being future-minded means that you are always on the lookout for the next big thing and how it might affect your business, be it technology or otherwise. Many developing technologies might seem like they will never see the light of day, but the reality is that many of them do have the potential to see business applications in some capacity. Let’s take a look at some of these oddball concepts and how they might transition to business use in the future.

Of all the technologies that have been proposed and developed over the years, few have tickled our collective imaginations the way that the concept of artificial intelligence has. For this reason, many small and medium-sized business leaders may write off AI as science fiction, rather than a solution to their operational challenges. However, the technology is currently finding its footing in practical use—more than proving its worth and adaptability in the process.

The Internet was always envisioned to be a network capable of sharing information across the globe—hence, the term “world wide web.” However, many online services are currently at odds with governing bodies, many business tactics and decisions impacted or even prohibited as a result. Let’s examine some of these tactics, and how the Internet has been impacted.

We haven’t exactly been shy about sharing our recommendation that a ransomware demand should never be met with payment, but there is now an even more impactful reason not to. This deterrent comes courtesy of the United States Treasury Department, which has released a statement informing businesses of potential fines as retribution for doing so.

Drones—they sure seem to be everywhere these days, don’t they? There’s a good reason for that. More than a hobbyist’s plaything or a military asset, drones have practical applications in a wide variety of industries. Let’s go over how different industries have adopted these handy devices to suit their needs.

The 2020 election is months away and traces of it can be seen everywhere. As people quarrel about how social media is being used to interfere with the political process, there is pressure mounting on election officials and tech companies, alike, to do what they can to keep solicitation and corruption out of the ballot box. Let’s take a neutral view of the changes that some online platforms are making to the way that political information is shared.

While blockchain technologies may have entered the public awareness thanks to cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, this is far from the technology’s only application. We wanted to take a few minutes and explore how the blockchain’s features promise many benefits to established and emerging industries.

Virtual assistants are everywhere. Either a device can be controlled with them, or it has the assistant built into it natively, and they are now common in the home and the office alike. In fact, their daily use in the workplace has been predicted by Gartner to reach 25 percent by 2021.

One of the most crucial resources in any business are its human ones - the employees that keep the wheels turning, day in and day out. However, like any of your business’ resources, you need to be careful when handling your employees. There is the very real possibility of an employee experiencing an unpleasant state known as burnout.

The dark web has a bad reputation - and for quite a few good reasons. However, like any tool, there is a lot of good that the dark web can be used for as well. Here, we’ll review what the dark web is, how it can be used (and abused), and what the landscape is like.

Machine learning and artificial intelligence have enabled us to accomplish great things with the computers we have access to today. However, it is equally true that these same innovations have also produced a great number of threats. One threat that is particularly dangerous in today’s day and age is the presence, and growing prevalence, of “deepfakes” in the media.

If there’s one thing you likely have plenty of in your office, it’s cables. Each device you regularly use probably has compatibility with at least one kind of cable… but can you identify them and what they do? Below, we’ll go over a few common cable types so that you’ll be able to do just that.

The IT industry is filled with acronyms. We use plenty of them because it’s more efficient. However, if you’re looking for technical assistance, it would be beneficial to know exactly what we are talking about and why it’s so important. Here are three common phrases that you’ll hear in the world of IT, and what each of them means for the small business owner.

UTM (Unified Threat Management)
A Unified Threat Management tool is one of the most important ways that an organization can protect its infrastructure. When it’s used in this form, a UTM is usually a hardware-based security solution that combines several common measures into one convenient package. Included is an enterprise-level firewall, antivirus, spam blocking, and content filtering solution. All of these combined make for an effective way of blocking attacks your business would encounter.

A UTM is one of Texas Professional IT Services LLC’s network security solutions, and certainly one that any SMB should implement as soon as possible. By taking a preventative approach to network security, you can mitigate the majority of threats before they even become a problem. This saves you the trouble of eliminating them after they have established themselves on your infrastructure and made themselves comfortable.

BDR (Backup and Disaster Recovery)
BDR doesn’t want to ask the question of “if” you suffer from a disaster, like a flood or a fire, and instead asks “when.” BDR is an effective tool for business continuity prolonging the life of your business in the face of disasters. Moreover, BDR allows for quick and almost instantaneous recovery, as your data is backed up in the cloud where it can be restored and accessed by any Internet-connected device.

RMM (Remote Monitoring and Management)
RMM tools are frequently used by IT service providers to offer remote assistance when it’s needed. These types of tools allow administrators to remote into your technology solutions without an on-site visit, which is great when you need help in a pinch.

That’s not the end of the benefits, though. Since most problems can be resolved without the need for an on-site visit, you wind up saving even more on technology maintenance in the long run. Plus, since you have IT administrators monitoring your network infrastructure in real time, problems could pop up and be resolved before you even know they are there.

For more clarification on what some of our services do for your organization, please reach out to us at (832) 514-6260. We promise to do all that we can to be as clear and transparent with our communications as possible!

A corruption case in Pakistan has taken a new twist, thanks to an unexpected source: Calibri. The font is being examined as key evidence, as its presence in key documents has caused a few bumps in the case. This is because the font is used in documents that are dated a year before the font was released.

Smart technologies are becoming more and more prevalent in everyday life. As such, it may not be a bad idea to prepare today’s children for their technology-filled tomorrow. However, as Mattel discovered with their kid-targeted smarthome hub, Aristotle, it is important to make sure that these devices are secure enough to ensure the safety of their youthful users.