525_ The Denver Botanic Gardens Goes High Tech in a Big Way
When you do a Google search for 'botanic garden' or 'botanical gardens' the number one web site is the Denver Botanic Gardens ...beating out New York, Atlanta, Fort Worth, Chicago, Brooklyn...yes all of them including The United States Botanic Garden. But it does not stop there. The visitor experience at the Denver Botanic Gardens is enhanced many ways because of new technology, both hardware and software, that has been installed by a partnership of high tech companies that are part of the CSIA membership. Larry talked with Brian Vogt, Chief Executive Officer of the Denver Botanic Gardens along with volunteer extraordinaire, Michael Vaughn, Director of Customer Relations at TEK Systems. About 20 organizations have been involved with this leading-edge makeover. They have a fully enabled Wi-Fi across the Gardens, re-designed Web site with blogging and video capabilities, HD video conferencing, and much more... The project was started about a year ago and they are going to celebrate by holding a Technology Day event on July 31, 2008. This full-day event includes panel discussions and product demo and information booths..
Related Links: Technology Day Link || CSIA Online || Software Channel || Blog || Keywords: Denver Botanic Gardens, Brian Vogt, Michael Vaughn, CSIA, Technology Day, > Bytes: 13521296 LISTEN 7/21/08

516_ Technology and Democracy Evolved to " Universal Access to Knowledge"
"The year we had the program 'To the Stars' (which Scott Brown's wife Karen designed), and we decided to focus in on the technology that was going to take us to the stars, which is where we all believe human beings need to go...." Scott Brown and Sarah McClain discuss both the beginning of the Telluride Tech Festival as well as what we can expect at the premier event August 1 & 2. Scott reflecting back said, "Our honorees that year included Arthur Clark, Jill Tarter and Lewis Branscomb, Charlie Towns, Freeman Dyson. And at one point during the program, we had on stage all these people - Nobel Prize winners, the leading physicist in the world , Willis Branscomb was the science advisor to three presidents, Jill Tarter heads up SETI. We got everyone up on stage and then for our surprise guest, Neil Armstrong! What we had done with this was to close this whole circle of putting Neil on the moon, in that Arthur Clark was giving the commentary on TV while Neil was setting foot on the moon and Lewis Branscomb was sitting with and explaining to President Lyndon Johnson, what was happening... and it was just a thrill that still sends chills up my spine." Sarah highlighted some aspects of Tech Fest 2008, "This year's broad theme of technology and democracy, evolved to "Universal Access to Knowledge". We've got three confirmed honorees this year, Kirstie L. Bellman, Ph.D., is a Principal Scientist in the Computer Systems Division and head of the Aerospace Integration Sciences Center (AISC) and we also have Brewster Kahle who is director and cofounder of Archive-dot-org, which is one of the largest digital archives in the world. We also have Ted Selker who is associate professor, MIT, for the last 10 years. He's done a lot of research ranging from notebook computers to operating systems and a lot of people may know the red trackball mouse on a laptop computer is something he created."
Related Links: Telluride Tech Festival || Early Bird Tickets || Software Channel || Applied Trust || Keywords: Scott Brown, Sarah McClain, Telluride Tech Festival, Universal Access to Knowledge, Kirstie Bellman, Brewster Kahle, Ted Selker - Bytes: 775549 LISTEN 6/30/08

521_ Celebration of the Past, Present and Future of Technology
Not too many people know that the world’s first commercial grade, alternating current power plant was built in Telluride, Colorado, in 1891, which was in fact, the launch of the technological revolution. Sarah McClain and Larry got an interesting history lesson from Scott Brown who has lived in Telluride for many years. Scott said, "One of the great historical characters in Telluride was a man by the name of L L Nunn. Nunn was very inventive and well read and had heard, back in Pittsburgh, George Westinghouse and Nikola Tesla had run some experiments using alternating electrical power. So, L L Nunn took the train from Telluride to Pittsburgh with $100,000." Scott shares many fascinating facts during the interview, and went onto point out, "So these young guys in their teens and early 20's built the 'World’s First Alternating Current Commercial Grade Power Plant', just outside of Telluride. They pushed the button and it worked. It powered the mills, saved the mines and saved Telluride." He also talks about Thomas Edison and JP Morgan. Now the bridge to the future. The Telluride Technology Festival is a Celebration of the Past, Present and Future of Technology. The Tech Fest is based on the historical fact that in 1891, Nikola Tesla, George Westinghouse and Telluride’s own L.L. Nunn built the world’s first commercial grade AC power plant in Telluride. The intimate mountain environment of Telluride, Colorado continues to be an ideal environment for discussion and reflection. The 8th annual Telluride Technology Festival is August 1st-2nd, 2008!
Related Links: Telluride Tech Festival || Early Bird Tickets || Software Channel || Applied Trust || Keywords: Scott Brown, Sarah McClain, Telluride Tech Festival, Universal Access to Knowledge, Nikola Tesla, George Westinghouse, Thomas Edison, JP Morgan, AC Power Plant > Bytes: 10414187 > 7/14/08

493_ Ad Words: How Would You Like to 'Slap Google Back'?
Larry asked Simon Leung, "What are the common misconceptions about Google Ad Words?" 'Simon Says', "A lot of people don't understand the difference between "Ad Word" and "Ad Sense". People often think they're the same thing, but they're not. Ad Words is the advertising program from Google and Ad Sense is for publishers who want to display ads on their website. So first of all we want to make sure people understand 'Ad Words' and 'Ad Sense'. Another misconception when it comes to the advertising standpoint, is a lot of people don't want to drive traffic to their website from using 'Ad Words' from Google, because it is a pay for click program. That means you don't pay until someone clicks on your site, but at the same time there are also strategies that people are calling "free" and so they don't want to pay for traffic. But that is a major misconception because for a lot of the free strategies you're paying either to learn that information or you're paying a lot of money to hire somebody to do it." Larry and Simon went unto discussing the common mistakes made...listen for more. *Check out Event Photos!
Related Links: Simon Leung Blog || 20th Colorado Capital Conference || Entrepreneurs Channel || Rockies Venture Club || Keywords: Simon Leung, Google, Ad Words, Ad Sense, Rockies Venture Club, Colorado Capital Conference, Capital - Bytes: 7069260 - 5/26/08

459_ Software as a Service (SaaS) Meets Software for Security (SfS)
Gerhardt Eschelbeck is the CTO and Senior Vice President of Engineering, at Webroot. Gerhardt is one of the first in the country, maybe the world, to deal with the SaaS model. That’s Software as a Service. This has been a significant transition which has been driven largely by the threat landscape. Today’s threat is fairly stealth and designed to stay undetected for as long a time as possible. The purpose of the thieves is financially motivated. Today’s threats are fundamentally designed to steal information from the user’s computer, the banking information, financial, health information and what not. Therefore, we clearly have to look at this from a protection standpoint. I think the technologies that we developed 10 and 15 years ago which were very effective when applied to the virus threat, are not as applicable for today’s threat. What the industry requires is an approach that is much more sophisticated. We have moved from a purely desktop approach to a multi tiered defense model. I think the goal here is that you need to use a leverage similar to what the bad guys are using to actually detect those spyware technologies. This is where Webroot has been pioneering and working as an organization over the past four years. We have been able to protect, prevent and detect infections for our customers; this is certainly our top priority. Steps that an organization can do to stay clean and healthy from a computer hygiene perspective are; First make sure you update your systems whenever patches become available. “Microsoft Tuesday”. Missing patches are very frequently used within the first 24 – 48 hours by hackers to take advantage of those security holes. Not just the Microsoft programs, but all of the other programs and systems that you use, be it iTunes or Adobe, etc. The Second Recommendation: Make sure that your malware protection is the latest, state-of-the-art, and is updated to the minute. Thirdly, there are typically areas of very sensitive data that you have on your computer. Take a look at that from an encryption perspective, to make sure it is protected properly. 3/24/08 Bytes: 21176636
Related Links: Webroot || E-Mail Security || On Demand Software || Cyber Security || Podcast Directory || Keywords: Gerhardt Eschelbeck, Webroot, SaaS, SfS, user’s computer, banking information, financial, health information, computer virus, malware