BNMC Blog

Sometimes you might write an email to someone who you’ve never emailed before (perhaps you scrawled down their email while on the phone or at an event), and questioned the authenticity of your recipient’s email address. Those who use email frequently know all too well what this feels like. It makes the most sense to first make sure that you have the right email address before sending a message.

Computers. Computers Everywhere!
Next time you are walking down the street, stop using your smartphone for a few minutes and watch all the people on the street with you. A good number of them, especially if they are alone, are doing what you were just doing, looking at their smartphone. With so many people tied to their devices, the demand for systems that integrate with these devices is at an all-time high.

While many people are excited to be able to utilize applications to do things they had to do manually just a short time ago, a much bigger change is on the horizon that seems to be something out of science fiction. Some of the greatest science fiction authors of the 20th century have been able to predict the shifts in the relationships that humans have with technology today.

Many of these stories are cautionary tales about not letting technology get too far out in front of humanity. So, what happens when nearly every item that people purchase can be connected to the Internet? It’s not too hard to see scenarios, in a world where everything, not just everyone, is connected can cause potential problems. The fact is that the current Internet of Things technological shift won’t be easy to get out from under if the technology comes off the assembly line as quickly as it seems to be.

Many consumer products are now beginning to be outfitted with what are known as “smart” capabilities. Basically, they can now be accessed from an outside remote, often an app that the user can access with a mobile device such as a smartphone. This shift in computing delivers the first major change toward computing omnipresence and integrates potentially millions of separate functions; resulting in a .

IoT and You
Manufacturers have used an element of market research, namely the drastic increased use of smartphone technology, to justify their expansion into the untested waters of the Internet of Things. In fact, there are plenty of numbers available to justify about any manufacturer of goods to take a look at the potential for profit in creating products that can be connected to the Internet. Cisco did the math and estimates that the Internet of Things creates a $19 trillion market. TechNavio states that over 17 billion “other” devices will be connected to the Internet by 2019; not counting smart TVs, wearable technology, smartphones, PCs, or even connected cars. As a result, the people at Gartner estimate that the services that will likely accompany these devices will come in well over their initial projections, likely exceeding $300 billion by 2020.

For this reason, manufacturers are already producing millions of connected goods, creating a market for goods that won’t take up a lot of bandwidth, but will make the user’s life easier. In these times, any time savings is worth a pretty penny on the open market. The World Economic Forum expects that by 2020, five billion people will have access to the Internet, which is sure to boost demand even further. In fact, the same publication suggests that there will be nearly 35 billion things connected to the Internet by the same year. Here is a graph representing that shift:

It seems as if the ubiquity of our computing systems is an inevitability. Here’s hoping that with computing becoming a growing aspect of humanity, that we, as a civilization, are smart enough to proceed in these untested waters with caution, and to avoid the major problems humans face in the science fiction worlds that were created so very long ago.

Do you think that the Internet of Things and the ubiquitous computing it brings will change change the world for the better? Do you think automation is a good thing or a bad thing for humanity? Share your thoughts in the comments.

Businesses always try to eliminate unnecessary costs, but printing isn’t necessarily everyone’s first idea of an unnecessary cost. With so much revenue being invested in paper, ink, and toner every year, just think of how many resources this can free up for your business if you could find a way to eliminate them from your budget. With the right technology solutions, you can easily cut costs on printing.

Listening to the radio is a great way to pass the time during your morning commute, especially if you don’t have a CD player or an auxiliary port in your vehicle. While listening to the radio, you might hear a catchy tune that you want to look up later. Now, thanks to various smartphone apps and technology solutions, you can do it while listening to the song.

2015 was a brutal year for major corporations, as one by one they fell victim to hacking attacks. Major organizations like Blue Cross Blue Shield, Anthem, and even the United States Office of Personnel became victims of major hacking campaigns. A fact that’s often lost amongst these details is that not all hackers use their skill for evil actions, even if they are still illegal.

Mobile devices are challenging the traditional perception of the office environment. When employees bring their own devices to work, this is called Bring Your Own Device (BYOD), and it’s an increasingly popular trend. Initially thought of as a threat, BYOD is proving to be a valuable option for businesses wanting to increase productivity, so long as it’s regulated properly.

Virtually every kind of online account requires a password. Yet, due to the aggressive nature of hackers, passwords alone are no longer enough to protect your information. The best way to approach network security is to have more protections in place than just a flimsy password.

You’ve heard about a ton of high-profile hacks over the past few years, and it’s important to note that these numbers will only continue to climb. A recent incident involving Time Warner Cable, a large ISP in the United States, shows the world that even huge companies that specialize in providing Internet for users can suffer the embarrassment of a data breach.

If you’re one of the unfortunate souls still using Windows 8 (as opposed to 8.1) on your business’s workstations, you should consider upgrading, and as soon as possible. Microsoft has cut off support for its infant operating system, so if you want patches, security updates, and just a better overall operating system, upgrading to Windows 8.1 or 10 is an ideal solution to this dilemma.

Let’s say you get an email from a close friend. It looks like it’s legitimate, until you check the contents of the message. It’s an advertisement, or it’s trying to get you to click on a link to see something “important.” Regardless of what the content of the message is, you should probably slap that bad boy in the Spam section of your email inbox. You’ve just been the target of email spoofing, and it’s more common than you might think.