Forward Development

Ever wonder why it is that a 10 year old seems better at working their computer than you do. Most people say, “Oh well, they grew up with technology for all those years,” but if you think about it, you probably have been using a computer for at least the last 10 years. Sure, I can understand that when we are children it is easier to learn new ideas than it is later as adults, but I have a hunch that it has to do with something entirely different than brain chemistry.  This idea came to me when I taught basic computing to 5th - 8th graders.

It was the first day on the job, and quite frankly I had absolutely no idea what I was doing.  Having never received a degree for education (nor taking a single class in education for that matter), it was obvious that I was just going to have to wing it.  It only took me one day to realize how challenging it is to convince a group of adolescent children to follow instructions.  I noticed that no matter what you say there is always a student going about things on their own, pressing this button or that, and paying no regard to the proper procedures.  After the first few weeks I quickly realized that the classes were a lot more effective and educational if I employed an unconventional yet simple concept.  I would give the students an end goal like, “Make a word document that looks identical to this.”  Then the students would have to go hunting through the program trying to find the features necessary to create a bulleted list, or center text, or whatever the task may be.  During this process I would walk around and help anyone who had questions.  The traditional way to teach such an assignment would be to put the teachers computer up on the screen and go step by step on through each of the features necessary. It’s the way most adults would want to receive the lesson. However, it’s hardly the most effective way to learn.

After standing back and looking at how effective it was to teach computers by starting with the end result, it dawned on me: children are better at computing because they aren’t afraid to use trial and error.  Inquisitive by nature, kids sit down at a computer and just start clicking away at different buttons, links or anything else they can get the cursor on.  They never stop to think, “Oh my, what if this link destroys my computer!”  and that is exactly why they are so successful at teaching themselves.  I have found this same thing to be true among adults; in general, people who are better at using technology are willing to experiment until they get it right.

I will warn you however, that as someone who works in IT helping support and troubleshoot peoples issues, this is the last methodology we would like to see used.  There is nothing worse than hearing, “I don’t know what I did, I clicked on something, but I’m not sure what it was, and now nothing works!”  Yet, even with that in mind, don’t get discourage when the guy who works in your IT department freaks out. The truth is that it is his job to fix your problem, and in the long run you will learn how to accomplish tasks on your own much faster.  So go ahead… Push The Button!

-Greg Moser

admin Education Education, Help, Learning, Opinion

Now I know it may seem counter intuitive, but it is actually the case.  We first noticed this in the summer of 2008 when, for most of us here in southern California, we had to deal with $4.50 / Gallon gas prices.  You might think that these costs would force people to be more conservative and slow down their shopping habits; however, shopping didn’t decrease, it just changed its form. While the traditional brick and mortar stores took a hit from a lack of traffic, online stores saw an increase of traffic.

Lets face it, regardless of gas prices or the state of the economy, there are two things that people love: drinking, and buying things.  Realistically, all that financial difficulties do is require people to get a “Better Deal” then they would have taken the time to before.  Now how do high gas prices make the good deal an online deal?  Well, there are two ways.  First, the less time that people are spending out and about is more time for them to sit in front of their computers.  Second, once gas gets past $4 / Gallon, people start to realize that it is actually cheaper to have an item shipped to them than drive 30min down the road to their local outlet.

How do you capitalize on this?

There is one extremely simple way to benefit from high gas prices… drum roll please…  Offer “Free Shipping”.  For anyone who wasn’t convinced before, now this should seem a no-brainier.  The only thing that people think about when gas prices are on the rise is how much it is going to cost to get from point A to B, and with a “Free Shipping ” option online, it cost nothing to navigate the internet and order what they please.  To really capitalize on this offer, send out an e-Mail to you customer database displaying the Free Shipping offer, but make sure that it is for a limited time only.  Then when that ends, change the Free Shipping on everything to Free Shipping on all orders over $100.  This will entice people to spend that extra little bit, anything not to have to get in their car and waste valuable gas.

Don’t freak out, embrace the $4 gas, and even if you don’t make an extra dollar from this, at lease the high gas prices will convince more people to move to alternative energy fuels.

- Greg Moser

admin General, e-Commerce Economy

Logitech V450

OK, I normally wouldn’t write about something a silly a mouse for your laptop, but since my batteries just ran out and I’m about to snap….I realize how much I rely on this little device.

First a little background: I purchased this mouse approximately 3 years ago at my local Fry’s as a simple addition to my work laptop.  Before owning this mouse I would occasionally use a wired mouse when sitting for a long time.   I have used many different types of mice for my desktops over the years, including all of the great options that apple has to offer.

Now that I have gotten that out of the way, let me just say that this little device, pictured here, does everything needed, and does it all flawlessly.  It is small and easy to pack into any bag, but not so small that you end up with Carpal Tunnel Syndrome after one sitting.  While it doesn’t have 45 buttons that just end up confusing you, it does take care of all the simple necessities: Left Click, Right Click, Scroll Both Directions, and a center Multi-Purpose button.  In addition, the USB receiver slides seamlessly into the base of the mouse so that you don’t loose it during transport.  When I get home at night, my laptop docks into my TV, and I can still use this amazing piece of equipment sitting 15 feet away on my couch.

The long and short this is that the Logitech V450 is the best mouse I have ever used and I would recommend it to everyone.

- Greg Moser

admin Product Reviews Review

If you have ever wondered about this mysterious and intimidating device before, don’t worry, you’re not the only one.  In fact, most people have no idea what a server really is or how it is used.  Even if  the term is in their vocabulary, they may still be completely clueless.

In a nutshell, a server is just a regular computer on steroids.  They are typically used to hold a large amount of data that are accessed by multiple users or computers.  They have all of the same components that a regular computer has, but are designed to operate 24/7 in a performance-demanding environment that can fluctuate greatly.

In a business setting, servers can be used to hold a company’s e-mails, business documents that are shared between employees, or databases that house valuable business tools.  Probably one of the most common ways in which servers are used is in hosting websites.  In fact, the entire internet is built on a interconnected network of servers.  Every time you look at a website, you are simply accessing files that are located on a server somewhere on the global network.

Servers are designed to allow multiple users, who are all preforming slightly different tasks, to connect to them at once .  For this reason, they tend to be more expensive than your average computer and to need an increase in performance so as to carry out multiple simultaneous tasks.  In addition to performance, they typically have a variety of different redundancies to make for minimal downtime.  These redundancies can include: built-in backup power supplies, multiple hard drives that mirror each other in the event that one crashes, and monitoring software to insure maximum up time.

So the next time  you are talking to someone regarding servers, don’t be intimidated, and remember to focus on performance, redundancy, and reliability.

- Greg Moser

admin Technology Explained 101, Hardware

Hello and welcome to my blog.  The purpose of these articles is to inform business owners, entrepreneurs, and web enthusiasts of the research and information that I have gathered over the years.  I will be talking about e-Commerce, Online Marketing, Offline Marketing, Non-Web Technology, and much more.  I encourage you to write Feedback in the form of comments, and open this up to be a forum for learning.

- Greg Moser

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