HR Geeks » business

May 1st, Raleigh 2600 meeting

Ethan — Sat, 02 May 2009 16:53:37 +0000

I dissed the 757 crew and headed Southwest to Raleigh to drop in on their 2600 meeting. I got caught up at work and didn’t get out of Norfolk until around 3:30pm, which delayed me a bit. I had planned to leave at 2pm to make it by the start of their meeting at 5pm. This put me at the Raleigh 2600 around 6:45PM. It was great fun! I met Koft and his girlfriend Dana there (Koft used to live in Hampton R0ads). Saw a few familiar faces from Carolina Con and met new people. Discussion ranged from Ardunio /microcontrollers, to Crestron and other building/entertainment automation platforms, to software, and hardware. Definitely an interesting group of people. I finally forced myself to leave at 11pm, and I have to admit time flew. The group was moving the meeting outside of the coffee shop at this point, the meeting apparently was far from over. In the future I will drop in on their meeting again, but first might have to pay a return visit to the DC 2600 meetings. Around the 1994 – 1996 time frame other locals and myself would make the road trip up there as we didn’t have a meeting here. Perhaps in a few months!

HRGeeks on LinkedIn & Connect321

Ethan — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 15:26:57 +0000

HRGeeks has a group started by Sean on LinkedIn (needs a logo!). For those un-aware (I hope everyone knows what LinkedIn is by now), LinkedIn is a social network site for business. Plaxo was first, but LinkedIn grew to great popularity recently, after activity has slowed for a year or two. Now Plaxo is making a comeback. If you did not know, www.linkedin.com and www.plaxo.com.

HRGeeks also has a group profile on the new local directory site Connect321. Go to www.connect321.com, search for HRgeeks group (or browse). Feel free to join the group there. Also feel free to add businesses or reviews! Take note that unlike LinkedIn and Plaxo, Connect321 is a local company so let’s show them some love!

In addition to this marketing, t-shirts are in the works (hopefully by Thanksgiving).

Norfolk Wire aquires Priest Electronics, closes location

Ethan — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 19:00:17 +0000

Norfolk Wire & Electronics has acquired Priest Electronics in Chesapeake. The Chesapeake store was closed and consolidated into the Cain Electronics store in Norfolk. Cain Electronics was also a fairly recent acquisition by Norfolk Wire & Electronics.

Dataline Consulting Services changes name, location

Ethan — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 18:55:51 +0000

Dataline Consulting Services changed names to Planit Technology Group and moved to Virginia Beach from Norfolk. You can see the building (Former TAF Group?) along 264, sporting a very nice but underutilized full color LED based “jumbotron” style display.

Local company Wasabi Systems, Inc. expands

Ethan — Tue, 06 May 2008 15:18:51 +0000

Job listings have been appearing in mass for local company Wasabi Systems. While I figured they would be gone by now, it appears they are indeed growing. Wasabi once employed a number of the people behind the awesome NetBSD project, not bad for a company in Norfolk Virginia! Wasabi makes iSCSI target & NAS solutions (Similar to the open source OpenFiler project, but a much smaller tighter package). Wasabi also performed coding work for a number of major companies in the embedded space. I’m not sure what the expansion is for, but if anyone knows it would be great to hear what is going on!

Electronics Recycling Day

Toxicboy — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 15:59:26 +0000

I know, one mans old 486 is another man’s firewall or router, but there is a point at which it really is time to get rid of those old electronics sitting around, and that time is quickly approaching.

It’s time for the annual Keep Norfolk Beautiful Electronics Recycling Day, April 19th. Keep Norfolk Beautiful assists residents yearly with disposing of their electronic goods which can be nasty little time bombs in landfills.

Collection is between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. outside of the WHRO parking lot at the intersection of Hampton Boulevard and 49th St. There is no charge.

Here is a list of items that are acceptable:

Computers
Mice
Monitors
Cables
TVs
Personal digital assistants
Printers
Stereos
VCRs
DVD players
Video equipment
Scanners
Radios
Flat panel displays
Video game players
Copy machines
Fax machines
Phones
Cell phones
Answering machines
Tape recorders
Reel-to-reel tape players
Medical electronics
Surveillance equipment
Toasters
Microwaves

Be sure to destroy those harddrives, even in your old PDA’s. I recommend this method.

Cavalier Implements Google

Toxicboy — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 11:00:10 +0000

You might have missed this a few days ago but I saw it being touted in a recent television ad; “Cavalier Goes Google”

Users will find The Google application suite via a Cavalier web domain which will provide Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Shopping, Google Picasa, and the Google Start Page feature allowing subscribers to create a home page. Cavalier claims to be the first company in the communications industry to launch these services.

Cavalier is starting right off using the Google brand to their advantage through their advertising. I can imagine that people are more apt to pick an ISP who uses the Google logo stamped on the front page on in their television ad.

I can also see why an ISP would want to outsource their mail, video hosting services, etc… to Google.

First, I dare say that most ISP’s use horrible webmail systems both on the front AND backend. The goal here is to make a buck and not everyone can afford a fully implemented MS, Lotus or Sun solution. The more affordable solutions lack advanced spam blocking features, calendaring, collaboration and other tools that make email more usable.

Second, Google with its power over the internet has become the one who sets defacto standards across the internet for ISP’s and others to follow. If everyone used and learned it people could easily switch between ISP’s or simply be able to help others with problems quicker.

Third, I could see ISP’s lowering their costs not having to deal with the support and maintenance issues associated with Google Apps equivalent services. I don’t even use the “extras” (email, webspace, etc) with my COX account. Provide me pure connectivity and no add-ons. But then again, these companies are out to make a dollar so I don’t see the pricing going down anytime in the near future.

I can see benefits for an ISP and users, but the lack of options and privacy issues could pose a potential hazard. Unwittingly or being forced to give up your privacy to Google is the biggest danger I see.

Gaming Center comes to Chesapeake

Toxicboy — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 13:41:36 +0000

What can you do with $100,000 and a store front on Battlefield Blvd? An All-Console Center named Hi Score. Don’t call it an arcade even tho its filled with video gaming consoles (who would want to be linked with the likes of Flipper McCoys anyway).

Equipped with Wiis, XBoxes and PlayStation3s linked to flat-screen, high definition tv’s, just sit back in 27 Ultimate Renegade Gaming Chairs synced with LED’s and get ready to play. With 300 games to choose from and Classic Sega and Nintendo games in the “Retro Room” (including several tube-televisions) the games offering seems pretty complete. Pictures even show dual setups for Rockband.

Pricing is per hour and discounts are available with the purchase of a yearly Membership.

Although offering individual play, the business model would seems to appeal more to groups.

There is no mention of broadband, on-line play at the facility, again limiting the appeal to single gamers. However, the website says there will be XBox Live “guest accounts” for those users who wish to play XBox online, but no indication if it has actually been implemented. I can only imagine this could be a bit of a legal minefield.

“Gamers are also invited to bring their own XBox hard-drives or even their own XBox boxes if they desire.” but I like my couch and tasty beverage a whole lot more.