Category: Tech Insight
Tech Time Warp: Bidding adieu to AppleTalk
Fifteen years ago, Apple quietly discontinued one of its innovations from the 1980s: the AppleTalk networking protocol. When Apple released Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard), it ended support for its proprietary local area networking system, moving fully to TCP/IP-based...
MSP expertise needed to enhance cloud services experience
A survey of more than 500 IT professionals, conducted by Civo, a provider of cloud computing services, suggests that well over a third of organizations need some help managing their cloud computing environments. Rising cloud costs are often being ignored...
Tech Time Warp: Have you ever wondered about the history of cut, copy, and paste?
For many of us, using the keyboard shortcuts for cut, copy, and paste is as second nature as flipping a light switch. Whether you’re a Mac (Command-) or a PC (Ctrl+) user, these shortcuts make life easier and word processing...
How MSPs can turn IT crisis management into opportunity
Newton’s third law of physics holds that every action has an equal and opposite reaction. The recent global IT outage, impacting roughly 8.5 million devices running older variants of Windows, is no exception. The two most immediate impacts will be...
Tech Time Warp: Reflecting on the Ken Thompson hack
In 1983, Ken Thompson and Dennis M. Ritchie received the prestigious A.M. Turing Award for “their development of generic operating systems theory and specifically for the implementation of the UNIX operating system.” However, this look back at technology history is...
How MSPs can prepare for future PC outages
A recent global event has demonstrated how vital it is to maintain a reliable IT infrastructure. This is including its access points such as endpoint devices, as it is the backbone of many essential services. While the event may seem...
Pioneers in Tech: How Barbara Liskov revolutionized computer science
After earning a bachelor’s degree in mathematics in 1961 from the University of California, Berkeley, Barbara Liskov applied to graduate school at Princeton University. In response to her application, Liskov received a form letter informing her the school didn’t accept...
Tech Time Warp: The golden age of Minitel
With all eyes on Paris thanks to the 2024 Summer Olympics, it makes sense to turn our attention to a uniquely French chapter in technology history: the Minitel. You may remember this innovation from your French language textbook, much like...
Tech Time Warp: A look back at Olympics technology innovation
The 2024 Paris Olympics is already being hailed as groundbreaking in the use of artificial intelligence to protect athletes from online abuse and answer their questions quickly via an exclusive AthleteGPT service. But, as you will see in this edition...
The MSP’s guide to finding the AI balance
In my last few posts, I’ve covered how managed service providers (MSPs) can use artificial intelligence (AI) to cut costs, increase margins, and provide new services to customers. In each one, I have touched on how AI is not the...
