The office next door to mine is no bigger, about 270 usable square feet of space. For some that’s a refrigerator but for us it’s 3 people comfortably working in a rapidly-evolving modern office. Copper lines give way to one single DSL connection on which we use Skype, Google or Yahoo phone, and Vonage to make all of our calls. We are an experiment in shoestring technology to produce a premium product. We combine patience and technical savvy to overcome what technology is not yet perfected, and for when it has we are in awe of it.

And for my neighbor, it’s a bunch of rackmounted servers and 24/7 air conditioning–yes, even in the winter. And, when you pass his office door, the unmistakeable networking room hum can be deafening for us who are used to only the clatter generated by typing or clicking, and Ambient sound generated by an iphone application–this week’s background sound, the French cafe.

And here we are in the last quarter of 2009, and fast-approaching the year of the cloud, the year in which we trade in all of our servers for network drives, our Windows Server for Google Apps, and the expensive subnotebook for either a Netbook or an iPhone or both.

The rack-mounted status symbol is going out the door for something that is already remotely managed coming with 99.9% guaranteed uptime SLA and for a mere $50 per user per year! Save money and focus on running your business.

We are recommending giving the cloud a chance and to not get a traditional Windows Server. Though we can support you either way, you can save a bundle of money at this time on hardware and software that you might simply not need. And that’s okay.

We are in the process of reinventing Pillar. As the year draws to an end, we will spend most of December completing our own internal projects that will make us leaner, more nimble, more competitive, more visible and more profitable. These same tactics are what we will pass on to our customers. Some will kick and scream, others will be happy to hear it. This is the future, why wait for it to arrive?

Cheers,
Richard Lee

The Brazilian Favela is as familiar to its landscape as are the lush green hills, dense dark green forests, blue skies and yellow sun. These are, and without coincidence, also the colors of the Brazilian flag. It’s been said that only in Brazil can you buy a million dollar apartment and see the Favelas from your living room window.

For many Brazilians, the Favelas are simply the coagulation of crime, poverty and the gravity that keeps their country from leaving third world status. Despite their strong economy, their self sufficient energy, and being the largest country in all of South America, Brazilians do not take any pride in this interesting microcosm of their own great society. The Favelas are the colorful shanty town that sprinkle the mountainsides all over the country. They are now equipped with electricity, plumbing, Internet and banks. They are home to poor, hard working people who commute by bus to their jobs. They are also populated by gangs whose currency is violence and drugs.

The Favelas, like any other real estate, must be controlled in terms of their expansion. Since they, like the rest of the cities in Brazil, occupy the lush countryside, it is only through the destruction of forest that the Favelas, and the city, can expand. Putting a cap on that expansion will always be controversial.

Brazil is slowly becoming a global economic superpower. Their economy is deemed stable by American analysts, and their energy industry is world-class. Brazil is the largest producer of Ethanol, made from sugar cane. In Brazil’s rise to economic freedom, they struggle to leave behind a past where its own Amazon forest was ravaged by man-made deforestation, the extinction of wildlife and the upheaval of Brazil’s indigenous people. Today, in Rio de Janeiro, where drug-related crimes are very high, and where the world’s finest beaches of Ipanema, Copacabana, and Leblon attract millions of visitors worldwide and all year round, the local and federal governments work hard to ensure the safety of all visitors. And part of that safety is what they can or can’t see. The Favelas are not considered to be the natural beauty of the Brazilian landscape, economically and politically.

Brazil walks a tight rope on its struggle to become a global powerhouse. Its energy industry is the engine, its government the driver, and the whole world its passengers.

Richard D. Lee, Unplugged and Brazilian-American
The Right Click Blog

Upon landing, I turned on my Blackberry to find a fresh set of email and began replying to some of them. Sadly, those replies never went through. Then, after a reboot, I received a few complimentary text messages to indicate that I could receive messages. I can receive phone calls and likely make them, but at $2.00 per minute, I don’t plan on taking any calls.

My laptop however is my office away from the office. Whether I am home, in the backyard, or on vacation, it serves its purpose flawlessly. And, with Skype installed I can make phone calls for just pennies and be in action seamlessly. Whereas many announce to the world that they are on vacation, I slip it into my weekly activity, telling only my office and some clients. I am not trying to be evasive, I am only living up to my title: Chief at Large.

Ate logo!

Ricardo, Unplugged

The Right Click Blog, The Official Newsletter of PILLAR

Today, my new freedom vehicle is the Blackberry and it has been that for the past several years. For some, the thought of carrying a Blackberry is a death sentence. They gripe: “I don’t want one. That’ll just tie me to my desk.”

Your relationship with your job is one thing but your desire to work remotely from your office or main computer is a matter of personal choice. For most, the freedom of being able to reduce the amount of email you need to process between the end of a sales meeting with a prospect to getting back to your office computer is rewarding, not to mention efficient. As you wait on a subway platform, you can reply to numerous emails and the moment your reception signal is available (sometimes there are moments underground when the signal comes then goes), they all send off and more arrive in.

Plus, if using the built-in speakerphone or a Bluetooth adapter, you can easily take notes on your Blackberry and have it associated with the phone call.

The Blackberry is truly a portable office and the ultimate handheld, in lieu of using a laptop. I still gladly travel with my laptop to surf the web the way in the way it was intended and to use certain graphics applications. I don’t use my Blackberry to play games since gaming requires more processing power and utilizes more battery power. I prefer to carry a charged Blackberry versus a dead one.

For conducting the business of communicating with clients and my office, via email, the Blackberry alone is all I need. And with spring arriving in NYC one day at a time, I welcome any chance I can to walk to my destination, instead of taking the subway. And I can get so much done while enjoying the beautiful weather. In a few months, I will return to sun tanning, sipping a cold drink at poolside, with my Blackberry. And nobody will notice a difference.

– Richard D. Lee
Unplugged

The Right Click Technology Update
The Official Blog and Newsletter of PILLAR: The ONLY tech support call you need to make.

]]> http://pillarcc.com/blog/2009/04/blackberry-freedom/feed/ 0 http://pillarcc.com/blog/2009/03/matchcom-identity-fraud/ http://pillarcc.com/blog/2009/03/matchcom-identity-fraud/#comments Wed, 11 Mar 2009 02:59:42 +0000 Richard Lee http://therightclickblog.com/?p=125 In an online world where sites like Facebook and Twitter want to promote what you are doing, how would you like it if they suggested that you were doing something when you were not?

Match.com, the online dating site, is doing just that. Since online dating sites are trying very hard to keep up their dwindling memberships, they offer search results of people who have not been using the system, but show that they were last on just weeks ago, versus a lot longer.

How many people have had to explain to their boyfriend or girlfriend that the system was lying, that they were not online 3 weeks ago? How many relationships were destroyed by this false information?

If dating sites are trying to promote online dating they should all adhere to a code of ethics. Their marketing efforts should not promote a user’s online usage at all. They should merely mimick what happens in real life. And in that world, we respect our privacy.

Richard Lee
Unplugged