Lowyat.NET: Latest topics by stevito

Nuffnang Asia Pacific Blog Award

stevito — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 16:05:56 +0800

There is another event that hosted on this coming 23 Oct 2009 in Singapore for Nuffnang Asia Pacific Blog Award

You can now place your votes!

For more information regarding this event, you can go to the link below.
http://awards.nuffnang.com/index.php

Top 10 Malaysian Blogger

stevito — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 14:44:53 +0800

Hi, Everyone!! May I know any one joining this Malaysia Blogger event on this coming Saturday in KL?

For those who can read Chinese, you can go to the link below. You can vote your favourite blogger as you wish.
http://mybloggercon.com/award/

If you joined this event before, please distribute some opinion. I want to know more ya.. hehehehe

Free Webinar

stevito — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 13:26:08 +0800

Hi, everyone!! Good NEWS!! You can attend Microsoft Office Live Meeting webinar for FREE. Anyone is interested? I only provide the registration link to those who are interested.

Free Webinar - Free Learning

stevito — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 10:42:23 +0800

Hello!! There is a FREE webinar starts on next Monday. If you are interested on setup your own blog by using Wordpress, you can't miss this opportunity to learn how to setup a blog with only 6 steps. Have you ever thought about web based Human Resource Management System? EBiz HRM can helps you manage your HR data as long as you have the internet connection. Remember that H1N1 is still going on. You can travel less with conduct an online meeting through the internet to avoid the H1N1. You also get a chance to know about How powerful Microsoft Live Meeting on helping you conduct an online meeting easily.

For more information about the Free webinars and how to register, you may go to this link below.
http://training.exabytes.com.my/webinars/

Companies Turn To Web Conferencing

stevito — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 15:37:00 +0800

As the person in charge of gathering the company's staff from different corners of the country, you've got to be asking yourself how you will to get them to a single conference center and keep company expenses at a minimum. Logically, everyone would be able to attend the conference at the same time to guarantee correct dissemination of information. Unfortunately, the cost of getting hundreds of people to attend a conference in the same city can often be prohibitive, particularly if you are organizing a conference between people from different countries.

You may have noticed the average cost of business-class tickets increasing of late, and one of the big reasons is thanks to advanced web technology. Video and web conferencing have dramatically reduced the need for people to travel to conferences, which in turn has been worrying airlines. As the technology continues to improve, many companies are shifting their conferences from being physical events, to ones run on web servers. This is also saving them hundreds of thousands of dollars a year.

The technology has come so far that it now allows real-time and streaming communication, which is is almost on the same level as face to face interaction. This has brought the coroporate community much closer as a result. The price of video conferencing has also recently come down, which makes it an even more viable prospect for companies wishing to adopt the technology.

In the 1990s, special equipment was usually required to have a video conference. But now, all that's needed is a broadband connection and a web browser. This has enabled many more people to start using video conferencing. And as well as being able to access the conference on the web, they can also now download recordings of past meetings from the web, too. Those that can attend are now able to watch it and real time, where ideas can be put forth, and brainstorming can take place through shared applications like polling and virtual whiteboards; as well, presentations can also be made through PowerPoint slides and other documentation which can be transferred to all participants with a minimum of hassle.

In Australia alone, video conferencing software such as Web Ex is used by over 11,000 businesses. The reduced travel this has allowed will have reduced the amount of carbon emitted by thousands of tonnes. Some of the more common users of Web Ex software are in the finance and IT sections, and they use it for marketing and training purposes.

Web Conferencing Can Sell Houses Fast And Easy?

stevito — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 14:43:46 +0800

You don’t need to travel the miles to KL to show off a Penang beachfront property to a client. Invite interested buyers to web conferencing and present the houses for sale. They’ll come running to see the houses in no time. That’s real estate business as usual but with a new twist.

Selling Houses Fast and Easy

In real estate, you have to be tough to ride the hard times. Fortunately for you, you can cut on travel expenses, thanks to web conferencing.

Holidays or not, you can have a virtual meeting with prospective buyers interested to own a piece of Penang. You don’t have to make expensive long distance calls or spend for a round-trip ticket. The convenience offered by web conferencing is every busy businessman’s dream.

How can you sell the houses? During the virtual conference, you can show off the different properties and provide complete data to go with it. Since your presentation is done in real time, you can expect a lot of questions and respond to these immediately. One way to catch customer’s interest is to make a good presentation and answer questions real fast. On many occasions, a positive decision for your business can be made right there during the conference.

Why and When Do You Need To Go Virtual?

If you think that web conferencing is a lot of bull, then better weigh the pros and cons. You’ll know you need this technology in your real estate business when:

1. Your people are scattered all over the state busy selling property.
2. Your customers come from diverse locales.
3. You have no time to be setting up conferences.
4. You need more cash inflow than outflow.

During the meeting, you can discuss and exchange ideas and show off PowerPoint presentations in real time. Imagine how this can slash your travel expenditures. Your real estate agents won’t be rushing to and fro from West Palm Beach to Lauderdale. They can be anywhere in the state and still be available for a scheduled meeting without having to spend hours at the airport and in an airplane.

You can inform your customers that they don’t need to be inconvenienced and rush to inspect the site before they can discuss the deal. Show them the beautiful properties and they’ll come running to make sure you won’t change your mind and show off the single family home or condo to somebody else.

If you have no time to be setting up the meeting, call the web conferencing service to do all the groundwork. You can get a yearly subscription for the service. Compared to shouldering the travel expenses of three of your people, costs for virtual conferencing are peanuts. You can use the money instead for staff bonuses and advertising campaigns.

Get Updated Not Outdated

To stay alive in your business, you’ve got to have the means to reach out to more clients faster before competition muscles in. Investing in web conferencing is a smart move. If you are always in hurry, then everybody else is. Why waste your time and theirs if you’ve got web conferencing working for you? You need to sell your houses real fast, don’t you?

Video & Web Conferencing

stevito — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 13:46:44 +0800

Web and video conferencing technology is becoming more sophisticated with each passing day. A few years ago it was a novelty just to talk with someone online, and view his or her image at the same time. Today web conferences bring together entire companies in complex interaction that rivals live face-to-face meetings. How you might benefit from the latest developments in web conferencing depends on your particular needs. Here are a few points that you should consider.

1. Do you need to make a Powerpoint or other presentation during your conference?

If you answered “yes” to this question, then you will be glad to know that current web and video conferencing services allow the host of a conference to present a slide show or power point demonstration that will be visible on the screens of all the participants of a conference. Similarly, hosts can also open and show other document formats to their attendees. If you need this kind of capability, make sure that your conference provider can give this to you.

2. Do you require telephone conferencing integrated with your web/video conference?

Many organizations have found telephone conferencing to be an effective way to get work done. If you are already connecting with your members and staff via telephone conferences you can expand on this by choosing a web conferencing system that integrates telephone conferencing along with the online conference. The combined service will give you the ease of phone conferencing along with the enhanced visual and presentation features of online conferencing.

Some services allow the host to pay the long distance bill of all the participants (toll free conferencing), while others require each participant to cover their long distance fees.

3. Do all of your conference participants use the same type of computer?

If your participants are going to be using a variety of computers (PC, Mac, Linux) then you will benefit most by choosing a web conferencing system that works on any platform. While earlier conferencing systems required the downloading of complex software that would work only on specified operating systems, newer conferencing formats are delivered online and are browser based. They work on any operating system and if yours in an eclectic audience, then you will get best results with this type of conferencing.

4. Will it be necessary for one of your technicians to “take-over” and operate the computers of any of your participants?

If you wish to use conferencing as a service tool and want to avoid having to send out your service team on physical visits to clients, you can save a lot of travel time and cost by selecting a web and video conferencing system that allows the host of the conference to go online and actually take control of the computer of the client or conference participant. If you are looking at web conferencing as an after-sales service tool, then this particular feature will probably give you one of the most important benefits that you could wish for.

5. Do you want to conduct an online poll or survey during the conference?

If you have a large organization and want to make a quick and accurate poll of opinion or vote on a particular issue then the new polling capabilities of the most advanced web conferencing services will be an important feature for you.

Similarly, if you need to gather demographic information about your meeting participants, obtain valuable input, or quiz and test your participants, then the new online survey capabilities of current web conferencing systems will be an important feature to look for when choosing your conference format. Data from these types of online “surveys” can typically be saved and used for future use.

6. Do you want to brainstorm online, using a “whiteboard”?

Brainstorming is a great way to tap the ideas of a group and to come up with and select new ideas. If this is what you like to do when holding physical meetings, then you will probably want to be able to do the same thing in your virtual meetings as well. This is now possible in some of the more advanced web conferencing systems by using a “group notepad” that enables meeting participants to utilize a shared workspace. The results of these brainstorming sessions can typically be saved in a storage area.

Which of these features will benefit you the most? It all depends on your particular needs. However, one thing is sure: once you experience the convenience of online meetings, you will not want to go back to the era when every meeting required you to pack up your bags and get on an airplane.

EBiz Plus/Gold Linux Unlimited Web Hosting Package

stevito — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 12:47:01 +0800

Hey, Everyone, I just found out Exabytes has EBiz Plus/Gold Linux Unlimited Web Hosting Package for this June promotion: Its pretty good deal for those web builders who are looking for unlimited addon domains, parked domains, MySQL Databases, disk space and monthly data transfers.

Have a great weekend!!

Web Conferencing Comparison!

stevito — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 12:23:45 +0800

It seems that every day there is a new online meeting and conference service popping up. Trying to pick the right one can be very confusing and challenging. Besides price, you want to make sure you choose the solution that is right for your organization. When I use to be on the other side of the business, where you are sitting right now, these were the factors that helped me make the right decision:

* Do I have to download and install software onto my desktop &/or laptop?
* Do I have to dial into a traditional telephone conference system?
* Does the solution have video conferencing?
* Does the solution allow me to have as many meetings as needed, i.e. a monthly plan?
* Is the solution both PC and Mac friendly?
* Does there have to be only one moderator?
* Does the solution offer a recording feature?
* Does the solution allow me to share files and spreadsheets?
* Does the solution allow me to Screen Share?
* Does the solution have whiteboard and annotation tools for me to highlight and present important information?
* Does the solution provide polling?

we have put together a list of the most current and popular online meeting and conferencing solutions out there. We have listed their pros and cons.

WebEx requires you to download their software. Their web-based solution is user friendly and they offer many features for your meeting. However, the cons seem to outweigh the pros. The first issue I found when I used WebEx was that there was only the option of having one moderator and that you have to switch back and forth during the meeting. As well the pricing structure is based on how many “hosts” or moderators there will be for the meeting and you can only have up to 25 attendees at a meeting. Their rates start at $69 per month for one host.

Microsoft Office Live Meeting requires you to download and install Live Meeting, but it has the web based version that can support Mac users. It can host approximately 1250 participants at the same time. Its only cost $15.50 per account per month with unlimited online meeting time. Microsoft Office Live Meeting 2007 version becomes more user friendly than previous version.

Adobe Acrobat Connect Pro is flash based which means you do not have to download an annoying player. The service is clean and fairly easy to use. The nice thing is you can set up rooms and have “pods” in each of the rooms such as chat pods, screen sharing pods, etc… Unfortunately, it is very expensive and if you decided to host it in house, you will need to hire someone to implement it, which will be another added cost. It is definitely very tricky to get it implemented and working to capacity. Monthly fees start at $375 per month for up to 5 attendees and there are options such as Voice over IP (VoIP) Audio and broadcast video, as well as teleconferencing available as an add on with this package.

GoToMeeting requires you to download their solution and to give a credit card for their free trial. As well there is no audio option so you are forced to dial in via a traditional telephone conference call. In addition this program only works in screen sharing mode. This prevents presenters from running the program on their system in the background while other programs are open. Their solution costs $49.00 a month for up to 15 attendees

Yugma has a fun name and is becoming very popular thanks to the great job they are doing to market it, cutesy. However, I was disappointed by having to download and install their software program which in turn crashed some of my word documents I had running and I had to shut the others down. As well the attendees for my meeting had to download the software in order to attendee - Mac users were not happy at all. Removing it became another issue. There was no audio support which meant we had to use a teleconference option, 3rd party VOIP or Skype (which is “cool” and free for the most part but not everyone uses it). Pricing starts at $14.95 for 20 to 49 attendees and one host as well you may want to add a toll free service which starts at $64.95 a month. If you want webinar options that is an extra $19.99 a month.

DimDim is an open source web based meeting software. Dimdim is a very simple to use browser-based web conferencing service. You can show presentations, collaborate via whiteboards, chat, talk and broadcast via web-cam with absolutely no download required to host, attend or even record meetings for up to 20 people for Free; but there is no concurrent meetings or no custom branding. Unfortunately, in order to share screens you need to install more plug-ins as well there is only one moderator at a time. During our meeting DimDim did crash all attendees systems and everyone had to reboot and start over - not key during a meeting. The audio was faint but hands free. Pricing starts at $25 per month up to 50 attendees.

my SQL Server Toolset intro (part 1)

stevito — Fri, 29 May 2009 16:48:24 +0800

LiveMeeting recording for my SQL Server Toolset intro (part 1) is now available

http://sqlblogcasts.com/blogs/tonyrogerson...-available.aspx

SaaS Based Web Conferencing

stevito — Thu, 28 May 2009 10:48:54 +0800

Frost & Sullivan (News - Alert) has announced the release of its latest market research, ‘Latin American Web Conferencing Services Market,’ in which it finds that Software as a Service (SaaS (News - Alert)) based Web Conferencing (WC) and Real Time Collaboration (RTC) applications are gradually becoming increasingly popular in South America.

These applications are considered mission critical by Latin American companies for translating existing accounts and potential businesses into tangible real-time profit making ventures because the offerings help to significantly reduce capital and operational expenditure, increase productivity, are mobility enabled, and agile and as a result, enterprises are more than willing to invest significantly in these solutions.

The Web Conferencing and Real Time Collaboration services market, the report notes, generated more than $ 10.6 million in revenue in 2008, and is predicted to close in on $ 33 million during 2014.

"Traditionally, audio conferencing solutions comprised the preferred collaboration method in Latin America, as the friendliness of the service and affordable connection rates presented a solution that also has a small learning curve for participants," said Hugo Casiano, Research Analyst Victor, Frost & Sullivan.

"However, the integration of Web collaboration with audio conferencing and desktop video is increasing and many vendors already have an integrated product or service suite that incorporates all these mediums through the use of Internet protocol (IP)."

Although the popularity of these solutions is increasing in South America, the rate of adoption is anticipated to be slower, officials claim, than in North America and Europe. The principal reason behind this slower growth is that most customers in the region think Web Conferencing and Collaborative solutions are costlier than basic communications using VoIP and mobile handset devices.

However, companies are in the process of educating prospective customers about the significant benefits associated with SaaS, and chalking out, say officials, aggressive pricing, attractive schemes over the long term, and bundled audio and Web packages.
"Although the general climate in Latin America displays a sense of caution with regard to technology inve

tments, web conferencing vendors can leverage the current economic situation, to highlight the value add of their solutions and gain awareness," said Casiano.

"Reduced travel and increased interest in low-cost collaborative tools is expected during 2009, opening up possibilities for the deeper penetration of web conferencing services in the region."

Virtual Meetings

stevito — Thu, 28 May 2009 10:35:41 +0800

Image of a sample DimDim web conference with video and a whitebaordWe've all had the experience of having to wake up extra early to fight traffic to make it to a meeting across town. But as project teams becoming increasingly diverse, in-person meetings are not always practical or a good use of time. Additionally, for some community members, participating in planning and design meetings during the day may not be possible. There are now a variety of free and low-cost options for holding virtual meetings, from a "webinar" style to full video conferencing where participants can collaborate on a whiteboard.

Resources

* DimDim http://www.dimdim.com
* GoToMeeting http://www.gotomeeting.com
* WebEx http://www.webex.com
* Live Meeting http://www.microsoft.com/livemeeting
* Yugma http://www.yugma.com

Core Coding Experience Live Meeting

stevito — Thu, 28 May 2009 10:05:28 +0800

Core Coding Experience Live Meeting the Visual Studio Team

Visual C# and Visual Basic languages continue to evolve towards feature parity, strive to simplify programming and deployment with the Microsoft Office APIs, and allow easy interop to dynamic languages. In the tools space, Visual Studio 2010 offers greater support for Test-Driven Development, where tests are written before product code as an iterative approach to software design. In this interactive session you will get a chance to connect with the two Program Managers DJ Park and Dustin Campbell as they walk through the feature areas they feel will have the greatest impact to you and your development teams.

Date: Wednesday May 27th
Time: 9:00AM-10am PST
LiveMeeting:
https://www.livemeeting.com/cc/microsoft/join?id=HH4DRF&role=attend&pw=XZ*%28%5E5twB

Learn to use software from a lab or from your home

stevito — Wed, 27 May 2009 16:50:00 +0800

Some 10 years ago, Rita Scobie of Vulcan was adept with Microsoft Excel.

But having recently been asked to work with a spreadsheet with a much more recent version of the program, Scobie found herself stumped and unable to use the application as she once had.

However, short of taking a college course, locals in a predicament like Scobie didn’t really have any options when it came to catching up with ever-changing software.

Just because there aren’t any on-hand training courses delving into the world of computer applications available in the Town of Vulcan, doesn’t mean local businesses and organizations don’t have access to such lessons.

Thanks to the Vulcan Innovation Project (VIP), under the direction of the Vulcan Business Development Society (VBDS), an opportunity for training for businesses and organizations throughout the Vulcan County has been provided.

The Technology Training Centre, at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, provides such training through Microsoft Live Meeting.

With Live Meeting, a type of online messaging system, those who wanted the training could do so from the Adult Learning Centre (ALC), which is on the second floor of the County administration building, or from their own place of business.

On the morning of May 19, about 15 people took part in a course at the ALC that brought students up to speed with the updates in the applications that come with Microsoft Office 2007. In the afternoon, a course on time management using Outlook was offered, said Leslie Warren, Vulcan’s economic development officer.

“This opportunity is very useful,” said Scobie. The course helped bring her back up to speed with Excel.

Students were equipped with headsets, and their computers were remotely controlled by Kevin Moffatt, an instructor from the Technology Training Centre.

That’s to say that through Live Meeting, Moffatt was able to take control of the students’ computers so that he could mouse over all the application’s features, explaining them in detail while the students had a chance to see everything he does.

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Unlike some voice chat programs available through computers, Live Meeting provided a nearly crystal clear sound that almost brought Moffatt into the classroom.

And if anyone didn’t quite catch something, the headsets provided students with an opportunity to simply ask Moffatt a question.

On the odd chance he didn’t have an answer, Moffatt told the students he’d look into their query and email back an answer at a later time.

The Vulcan ALC’s computer lab is new, said Warren, with eight new machines.

It was the first program of its kind offered in Vulcan, although Warren said a similar course explaining some website design had been offered last year.

Another course is planned for this fall, and although last week’s class was free, that might not be possible to maintain in the future, said Warren.

Celcom Broadband Connection Issues!

Thu, 01 Jan 1970 07:30:00 +0800

Find The Right Training Program, Find A New Path

stevito — Mon, 25 May 2009 13:08:10 +0800

Do you know that there are many free online training program on the internet? Believe it or not, if you search from google.com with keyword "free webinar"+"malaysia", you can learn something new from the search result.

Celcom Broadband Connection Issues!

stevito — Mon, 25 May 2009 10:59:15 +0800

Hi, Everyone here.. Good Morning.. I have a difficulty to use my Celcom Broadband at home. I got the error code: 619. I have checked my celcom broadband payment.. its cleared.. and all the setting is correct..

I was wondering who has this connection issue or someone can assist me to solve this problem?

I will appreciate that!! Thanks!!

Have You Attended Webinar Before?

stevito — Mon, 25 May 2009 10:40:44 +0800

I’ve written several times before that I try not to attend real-world press events. They are nearly always overly-long and contain too much marketing-speak, so are not often particularly good uses of my time.

I’ve been thinking about why, and I think there are some hints in the decline of newspapers.

The thing about newspapers is that while they are nice artefacts, the journalism they contain is what is really important. The artefact of the newspaper has massive cultural inertia for many people, but the sheaf of cellulose that arrives on my doorstep each morning is now just one of several ways to distribute and monetise journalism.

I’m beginning to think that press events (and many conferences) are in a similar position to many media outlets, i.e; wedded to the artefact of the get-together in a big room with adjacent catering facilities, when the real issue is not how to run good events but how to preserve the information transfer they allow while thinking about how to use technology other than that embedded in today’s most popular artefact.

There’s one barrier I perceive: no-one’s very good at using the technology yet. I’ve attended webinars that were just the usual drone-and-slides affairs. If I had any real wisdom in this area, I’d be starting a consultancy around it right now, to help businesses take advantage of web conferencing and similar technologies to improve the effectiveness of their communications. Because I don’t have that wisdom, I’m hoping someone else does so they can lead a charge towards new ways of sharing information that take the good bits from the meeting/event artefact of today and take steer it in useful new directions.

HCL Recognized by MS as Partner for Voice Solution

stevito — Mon, 25 May 2009 10:30:57 +0800

HCL Infosystems has been recognized as Microsoft’s Voice Certified Partner for OCS R2. Microsoft Unified Communication Technologies use software to deliver complete communications like Messaging, Voice and Video across applications and devices that people use every day.

With this partnership HCL customers will enjoy benefits like e-mail messaging, conferencing (audio and video), live meeting, and collaboration with partners and customers, and voice integration with PBX and IP-PBX systems.

George Paul, Executive Vice president, HCL Infosystems said, “We are pleased to be selected as a certified partner to support Microsoft’s Unified Communications technology. We have a long standing relationship with Microsoft and we believe that this recognition will make voice solutions a smoother experience for many customers by overcoming challenges like streamlining end user communication, integrating communication model with core business applications and collaboration with partners and customers to reduce associated cost. This in turn will help transform businesses in the coming decade, in the manner e-mail changed the business landscape in 1990s.”

Sanjay Manchanda, Director-Microsoft Business Division, Microsoft India said, “Unified Communications (UC) is gaining crucial significance in the current economic scenario. In fact, it is one of the fastest growing areas today as it helps customers generate significant savings in operating expenses. We find customers opting for a complete UC solution that addresses their email, chat, conferencing and voice requirements via a single user interface. Partners with strong UC competency are key to a successful deployment, and with the completion of Microsoft Voice Certification, HCL is positioned to help customers get the full value of Microsoft’s software powered VoIP, and end–to-end Unified Communications solution.”

Save on Travel By Using Web Meetings

stevito — Mon, 25 May 2009 08:45:03 +0800

Have you ever been discussing something with somebody far away from you and wished you could just really quickly show them what you were looking at on your computer? Or have you ever wished you could give a presentation to an important client and not have to travel across the country?

If you answered yes to any of the above questions, then you are a perfect candidate for a conferencing services product. When you use a web conferencing or online meeting service, you can effectively get your point across, just as if you were in the same room with the the person you are meeting with.

Assuming everyone in the web meeting has access to the Internet, you can meet with each other just like you were in the same room. While you discuss things via VOIP or the telephone, you share what is showing on your computer and the other meeting attendees see what you see. This lets you give a PowerPoint presentation, show attendees how to use a program, collaborate on a project, or do just about anything you want.

Secure web conferencing meetings give you most of the advantages of a face-to-face meeting, without having to worry about traveling. Imagine how much you will save in time and money if you do not have to travel across the country every time you need to hold a meeting with someone.

Increased efficiency is something you get when you use a web conferencing product. Your efficiency increases because you travel less, and you are more efficient because you can meet with more people faster, all without leaving your office.

By looking into web conferencing reviews, you will see that they bring a tremendous feature set to your desktop computer. Web meetings are as easy as using any other desktop application, yet they allow you to meet online with anyone at another location across the country or around the world.

Start being more efficient by using a web conferencing solution. After you realize how much time you have saved, and the amount of aggravation you have avoided, you will be happy you gave web meetings a chance.