I vividly remember the first time I met Trey Pennington.  My husband, John, and I were at Launch Greenville.  I was not at all thrilled over giving up one of our precious Saturdays to spend sitting in a seminar hearing people talk about launching business in Greenville.  John and I were perfect candidates for this gathering as we had recently started our new business with Homeland Secure IT.  We soaked in every word of the day although later we agreed that there was little to offer in the way of new material to our business plan.  I guess this at least gave us a “good job” pat on the back.  I will never forget and have thought of it often as we were talking to others during a break period, Trey coming up to us to chat.  Sensing  our struggles as new business owners, he wasted no time in connecting with us through family experiences.  He mentioned his regret of not having his wife by his side at such events, but understood given their six children.  Trey offered a boost of confidence in telling us how recent his business had taken a turn in a better direction since recently his family was at a church dinner and both he and his wife had only one dollar to their name.  Today was a different situation he indicated with a thankful heart.

I ran into Trey at a few more conferences in Greenville after that first meeting and connected with him over Twitter and Facebook in the two years to follow.  Every time I saw Trey, I always felt a sense of pain  in his tired, puffy eyes.  John and I always dismissed this as a tribute to having such a big family and always keeping up with their ongoing activities as well as a traveling business.  Then in June, around the 20th, we hear of Trey’s desire to end his life and news of ultimate divorce.  John and I both could relate.

One thing that I find extremely irritating as I read it over and over again in posts and blogs is how great Trey appeared… all skinny and healthy.  When did “Skinny” become the new “Healthy”?  I am certainly not in the medical field, but I can speak from experience.  Thin can be an outward cry for help…an attempt to gain control.  I have lived in the place of such dark despair that eating becomes a huge effort, and even swallowing past the huge lump in your throat almost causes a gag reflex.  I remember how the days continue on in one long sequence and it’s suddenly hard to remember the last meal you ate much less enjoyed.  This feeling feeds into the dark tomb of emptiness and exercise becomes the only therapeutic relief from the pain.  Then one day you begin to hear from others in passing, “Wow, look how much weight you’ve lost!  You look great!”  I began to wonder if I looked so bad before, why didn’t someone tell me?  THIS looks great?  Boy, if you only knew what I look like on the inside!  And the nightmare continues!  Someone once asked me, “What are you doing to lose so much weight and get into great shape?”  I was quick to bark back with, “You don’t want this diet plan it’s called DIVORCE!  You RUN to escape and NEVER EAT!”

I saw this look in Trey’s eyes. The cry for help in his photo posts at the Fall’s Park Bridge and Starbucks downtown. His lips pursed and unhappy, his eyes sagging with exhaustion.  But like many, I just didn’t feel close enough to reach out to him.  What is “close enough” to reach out to someone?  When is it okay to let your guard down and assume someone will respond in like?  I have NO idea what details Trey was faced with in his life anymore than the rest of you scouring social media to find answers to his decision not to continue on in this life.  I have to say that I too was tossed out of my church and I do believe that I must have felt something similar with an institution that once consumed most of my life.  This church faced me and said that they were tired of the drama my family’s problems were bringing and it needed to end.  They strongly suggested that I leave quietly even though I was not to blame (I was the victim).  I should leave “for a season” and allow things to cool down.  After all it was much easier for me to walk away than to ask my husband to leave since his entire family attended the church and offered a big financial support.  Really?  I left with my tail tucked.  I’m so amazed to hear of something like this happening to someone else.  I am very thankful that I discovered my faith in God is stronger than my faith in church.  We are all only human after all.

I have mixed emotions about the passing of Trey Pennington.  Anger that he has cheated his children of the beautiful moments that could have been.  Frustration that he gave up on life and the lives that he had yet to touch.  Pity that his dark demonic life was too dark for him to find any more light.  Sadness for his friends and family that will never have the chance again to make an uplifting contribution in the life of a great man.

Pamela Hoyt – Homeland Secure IT

@PamelaHoyt    -    http://www.facebook.com/PamelaMHoyt

Trey Pennington, a man I met no more than maybe a dozen times in person, never shared a meal with or had a real conversation with outside of business, marketing or social media, took his own life, and there are countless blog, facebook and twitter posts about that unfortunate incident.

No, nothing I have to say is important at all, other than to say a thank you to Trey for all he did for us, and to apologize for not taking the time to get to know him on a personal level.

To his family, especially his children, God bless you all. He loved you dearly! He made that apparent with every appearance and conversation he had.  You will be in our prayers.

As always, if you see a link such as “See Bin Ladens last moments” on someone’s Facebook profile, don’t click it, it is likely not something you want.

Using a reliable and trusted anti-virus with web filtering capabilities, keeping your computer operating system up to date, as well as all supporting applications such as Java, Microsoft Office, Adobe products, etc is always a great idea. We recommend and offer Trend Micro for anti-virus for either your personal desktops or for your entire business network security! We also offer complete computer security, repair, support and sales in the Greenville & Upstate SC Area.

If you would like additional information, please contact us at 864.990.4748 or email info@homelandsecureit.com

While we are on the subject of Bin Laden, let me take a moment to thank our military and everyone involved in the events of the last 24hrs. I think we may all sleep a little better at night….

The number one reason we don’t advertise is because we have a very strong & established base of amazing clients and so many terrific friends and family who believe in us so much that they do an incredible job of spreading the word of what we offer! That’s the main reason. There are other reasons, such as the fact that I don’t believe the majority of people who want to buy a Cisco ASA 5505 security appliance or license Trend Micro Anti-Virus are going to pick up the newspaper or phonebook to find us.

I know for a fact that the IT people that we work around don’t get the idea to get a backup solution from listening to top 40 radio, etc. So, in short, advertising in those ways has not been very attractive for us.

But, I couldn’t pass this one up… @BigJonEvans is available for rent. That’s right. This crazy guy over at http://www.youbrand.me/ is allowing us to tattoo our logo on his forehead for a day, as well as streaming a live video where he will discuss some of our products and services, and making a short promo video. But wait, that’s not all, he’s also going to introduce himself as “Homeland Secure IT” for an entire day. And, because we acted right now, he’s throwing in a video of him lip syncing to a song!

I can’t afford a billboard on I-85 that says “Homeland Secure IT offers computer, network and server support, service, repair, sales in Greenville and Upstate SC”, etc, and frankly I don’t think the system administrator at XYZ corporation would read it and give it a serious thought, but I CAN afford Jon’s forehead for a day!  While not quite as big as a billboard, I think more people may see it!

All for the low price of 9 dollars! Now that is advertising money well spent. Advertising with an impact!  (The price goes up one dollar each day, so reserve your spot NOW)

Tomorrow, SUNDAY, SUNDAY, SUNDAY!  That’s the day you can watch @BigJonEvans talk about Homeland Secure IT and wear our logo. For more information, HEAD on over to Jon’s website at www.YouBrand.Me or follow him on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, etc.

If you have a business or cause or something that you would like the world to know about, this is certainly a fun way to increase awareness =)

Have a great weekend and prepare for the snowpacalypse that is coming!

Oh and Jon, I love your current project… That’s using your head!

Click on the video below to view on YouTube and LIKE them and comment…     See if you can spot and hear all the memes that are in there, there’s a ton!

Homeland Secure IT Alert for Thursday, October 28, 2010

In the news today you will find that a new variant of the infamous Koobface is making the rounds via social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Myspace.

Unsuspecting users are enticed to click a video link in a direct message which links to a bogus YouTube page where they are presented with a thumbnail of the video, which when clicked runs a JAVA applet, and the user will then accept it, thinking they are going to see the greatest video ever. Instead, they get a blank screen more times than not, and have just given access to their computer to the bad guys.

According to various sites, the applet affects Linux and Mac in a different manner than the Windows based systems because it remains running longer, giving attackers a long time to exploit the machine for evil purposes. (So all that wonderful uptime you get from a *nix machine works against you as a Microsoft Windows machine gets rebooted more frequently).

It is suggested that you keep your operating systems updated, your JAVA updated, and keep current and quality anti-virus products on your computer such as Trend Micro. Even an anti-virus package like clamAV is advised over nothing at all. Mac and Linux users need to be very aware that the good old days of running “bareback” are over.

As always, avoid sketchy sites, don’t run JAVA apps unless you trust them. If you are on social media, use some common sense and don’t click on odd looking links, even if they come from your friends.

If you feel you may have been compromised, contact a computer service professional immediately. If you need assistance in Greenville or Upstate SC, we provide complete computer service, virus removal and cleanup and sales of Trend Micro and Symantec security and anti-virus software. 864.990.4748

Homeland Secure IT Alert

]]> http://www.HomelandSecureIT.com/blog/2010/10/secure-it-alert-koobface-variant-infects-linux-mac-windows-systems/feed/ 2 http://www.HomelandSecureIT.com/blog/2010/09/social-story-conference-was-a-blast-here-in-greenville-today-socialstory/ http://www.HomelandSecureIT.com/blog/2010/09/social-story-conference-was-a-blast-here-in-greenville-today-socialstory/#comments Fri, 24 Sep 2010 22:11:49 +0000 JohnMHoyt http://www.HomelandSecureIT.com/blog/?p=889 [...]]]> If you have been paying attention, you know about the Social Story Conference put on by Trey Pennington here in Greenville today at the Warehouse Theatre (@WarehouseGVL). Pamela and I played hooky from work and attended it, feeling a bit naughty, like a kid skipping school!

The speakers were Tim TV, Sean Buvala, Amber Osborne (@MissDestructo), Rick Murray, Olivier Blanchard (@TheBrandBuilder), Trey Pennington (@TreyPennington), and moderated by Phil Yanov (@ThinkHammer).

The topic was “Building your social story”, and while social media was discussed a good bit, it was not the focus of the conference.

It was a total blast! Let’s do it again!  If you missed it you can travel to the next venue!  www.SocialStoryConference.com for more information about it.

I would like to thank the speakers for traveling to see us, especially @MissDestructo who is responsible for getting me into Four Square and has brightened many days with some words of wisdom! Also, to the staff at Bit Tyrant (Aaron Von Frank, Susan Sebotnick and Kat Hardaway), you guys did a bang up job, and your volunteers were awesome too.

Trey Pennington (@TreyPennington) has created the “Social Story Conference” which is going to be in Greenville, SC on September 24th. Trey, along with some other awesome people will be speaking on the subject of social media and social stories.  In short, how businesses can, and do, connect with people and form relationships, rather than force-feeding marketing down a one-way pipeline.

If you want to learn more about how to connect with your customer base, how to share in their lives, and how your products or services are part of their lives then you should consider going. If you are just wanting to continue to “broadcast” your information in the hopes that someone is going to listen, then avoid this conference by all means. Let’s face it, if you are constantly blathering on twitter about the $29.99 special your company offers without ever taking the time to follow your followers or listen to what they have to say, you are going to be unfollowed or filtered, just like the annoying car dealership commercials are muted by TV viewers.

The line up of speakers for Greenville is exciting! In addition to Trey Pennington, we’ll get to hear from and connect with Amber Osborne (@MissDestructo), Tim TV, Sean Buvala (@StoryTeller), Olivier Blanchard (@TheBrandBuilder), and Rick Murray… The emcee will be Phil Yanov (@ThinkHammer).

This is not about the social media platform, it is independent of the transport mechanism. It’s not about Twitter, or Facebook, it’s about connections.

More information is on the Social Story Conference website at http://socialstoryconference.com/ and you can also follow the hash tag of #SocialStory on Twitter.

Homeland Secure IT is proud to help sponsor this event and we can’t wait to see you there!

Please ignore this….

You can view your trends with a web interface, and access the data with your iPhone. I believe something like this really could encourage you to lose some weight. Recently there have been news stories which cite studies about weight loss and the results indicate that those who use internet weight tracking actually do lose more weight and manage to maintain that loss better than those who do not.

The thing that bothers me is that it will Tweet out your weight once a week to Twitter. All I could think was exactly what it would be tweeting when I stepped on it… Something like, “HELP ME! This fat guy is smushing me!” is probably what it would have to say about me! Still, it is an interesting gadget and I would love to have it. Who knows, maybe I will order one. Follow me on Twitter to see what this thing has to say!

I am active on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, FourSquare, Plaxo, and still have a MySpace account, though I don’t really use it that much. I haved tried out Google Buzz, FriendFeed, and several business only SM sites. (Heck, I have even checked out Chat Roulette and Omegle – but that is an entirely different story)

Out of all of these, one that I fail to see the value in for a computer service, repair and sales business like Homeland Secure IT is FourSquare. Don’t get me wrong, I love it. I use it constantly, and get very frustrated when it isn’t working like I think it should. But I use it for personal purposes. If you have not played with FourSquare, it is a geolocation based social media “tool” that lets you “check-in” to a venue or location when you get there using your GPS equiped smartphone. Assume you go to Starbucks for a quick Dark Cherry Mocha Frapp – you “check-in” and now the whole world can see what you are doing.  You can brag to Twitter & Facebook that you have disposable income you can spend on yummy coffee.

Same thing goes for attractions like amusement parks, ball games, and stores like say, “Target”. If you check-in enough times, you become the “Mayor” of that venue!

Here is where the value of FourSquare comes in… Assume you check-in and become mayor of XYZ Sandwich Shop. You have been announcing this for a while, everytime you visit there. The whole world has seen you were there, giving free advertisement to XYZ! But, if XYZ is smart, they will reward you for your loyalty and offer a free sandwich when someone becomes Mayor, and maybe a free drink every time the Mayor visits after that. A very cheap price to pay for this type of advertising.

Many places, especially restaurants, will offer specials that popup when you check-in near their venue. These will show up as a “SPECIAL NEARBY – Check out the great ribs at ABC BBQ”, which can help bring new business into these places. And still other places will offer you a free entree when you visit several of their location. FourSquare itself offers “Badges” for accomplishing certain feats, such as checking into three Starbucks locations.

All that said, our business does not have foot traffic nor visitors, so offering a “Free Virus Cleanup” to a mayor would be silly. I believe I am the only person to check-in to our location in the months that I have been using it. But it does bring up a pet peeve of mine. Today I was ousted as Mayor of a local coffee shop – BY THE OWNER OF THE PLACE. Wow, that doesn’t do anything to help with loyalty. My suggestion to places that want to check-in themselves, create a second venue, call it XYZ Sandwich Shop STAFF, and let the staff go crazy checking in!

I would further suggest that business owners who can benefit from FourSquare’s power of (free) advertising, take advantage of it the way it was meant to be used. Offer Mayors a treat, some recognition, and encourage them to remain the mayor and others to try and oust the current mayor. 4sq is both a FUN, and a very useful business tool, when used properly.

BTW: If you can think of a way 4sq can be used to promote our computer repair business here in Greenville, and increase loyalty, well I’m all ears, but until that happens, I will be trying to take my place as mayor of every great business in the Upstate!  Watch out Mayors, I’m coming for you…   

BTW: Have fun, it is only a game!  (But seriously, I’m coming for you)…    Also check out other geolocational based SM tools / toys like Gowalla, Gypsii, BrightKite, Loopt, etc…

At “high noon”, cooler lids opened, and a fountain of Mentos activated Coke sprayed high into the air… Suddenly, the group pulled out (water) guns and began firing on each other! Some people had modest little water guns, others had fully automatic hydration systems shooting 25+ft. Then the bombing began! Water ballons were launched and many participants were instantly drenched with the barrage of ballons, again in the colors of Google’s famous logo.

Until the video is released, I can’t say for sure who won, but I have a feeling the Blue beat out of the rest =) (They may feel otherwise, but that’s my story, and I’m sticking to it)

The brainchild of Susan Sebotnick / @BitTyrant and Aaron Von Frank / @AaronVonFrank – they thought it up on Friday, made it happen today by using social media to alert a couple thousand people…   Due to the holiday, many were out of town though. Still, the turnout was terrific for Noon on a Monday!!!!

Some photos from James Akers Jr. / @JamesAkersJr are available here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=187731&id=507966821#!/photo.php?pid=4889169&id=507966821

Network surveillance camera giveaway

I present to you: July’s freaky fun thing from Homeland Secure IT…

We are going to give away a cool color WiFi IP surveillance camera!

These network security cameras are pretty nifty! They feature wireless 802.11b/g connectivity, or wired CAT-5 to your network, as well as full color via a 1/4″ CMOS sensor, with 640×480 resolution at 30fps (full motion). They support WEP and WPA encryption.

These babies can automatically email you a snapshot at the first sign of activity, so you can get it on your smart phone, or you can log in and watch the video feed live with a web browser or some mobile smart phones…  It comes with software to turn a computer into a DVR to record the video.

Oh, did I mention that it features infrared illumination so it can see it total darkness?  Yep… pretty cool!

All you have to do is to attach the little mount it comes with to a wall and then attach the camera to that, connect the power supply and your network cable, or you can program it to connect wirelessly to your network.

What’s the catch?  There is none…  Absolutely no purchase, no obligation to enter our giveaway, other than to get connected to us via our mailing lists or this blog.  On this blog you can look to the right, and enter your email address in the “Follow Me” section and then hit subscribe and you can sign up for our email mailing lists HERE.

We combine the subscription lists from the blog and our two mailing lists into one list and draw randomly, which creates a loophole that can work to someone’s benefit – If you are subscribed to all 3 places, you have 3 chances to win…

Legal mumbo-jumbo: This offer is void where prohibited. Winner must pick up prize at our office in Greenville SC, or make arrangements for it to be shipped at his/her expense.

We will select the winner on July 31st 2010 and announce it the following week via a blog post, social media, etc!

In the meantime, if you want to purchase one of these snazzy cameras, we sell them as well as a full line of security and surveillance cameras and DVRs, so shoot us an email at info@homelandsecureit.com or call us at 864-990-4748….

You have to play the game to win… To play, you need only sign up for our mailing lists and/or subscribe to this blog. While everyone in the USA is eligible (except where prohibited by law) our mailing lists are primarily of interest to computer and technology enthusiasts, business owners, entrepreneurs, our clients & future clients of course, friends, family and individuals, mostly in and around the Greenville and Upstate South Carolina area. If you live outside of the local area and cannot pick up the cool stuff you win from our office, then you will be responsible for the shipping and handling costs.

WHAT CAN YOU WIN? Just what are we planning to give away to those who subscribe? In no particular order: A wireless network / IP surveillance camera complete with night vision, Trend Micro Anti-Virus, APC & Eaton UPS, free computer service & support, gift cards to various places around the Upstate and more! (Who knows, maybe a cool Android device, or netbook, etc)

We will announce the giveaways as we start them. The next one will be for July 2010.

WHY ARE WE DOING THIS? Because we want to increase awareness of our products and services, but we also want to have fun and to give something back to those who support us!

HOW TO ENTER: On our blog simply enter your email address & click on the subscribe button on the right-hand side where it says “Follow Me” to subscribe to this blog, which will be emailed to you each day there is new content, or you can sign up for either one or all of our mailing lists. There are currently two mailing lists, the “NewsBytes” ML which has minimal traffic, no more than once per week, and the “Secure IT Alerts” mailing list, which has only postings that regard to security, such as vulnerabilities and patches – traffic varies on that list. (There is a form below)

HOW WE SELECT A WINNER: At the time of the drawings, ALL lists are combined together and a name is selected randomly using a random number generator to get a number that corresponds to a name on that list.

LOOPHOLE ALERT: There is one flaw that can be used in your favor… If you are on multiple lists and subscribed to the blog, your name is going to be in the list multiple times, increasing your chances of winning.

Sign up now using this form:

Click on the video player and go to YouTube to check out their other videos while you are at it.

We would be honored if you would help us get this cool graphic for use on our website and publications!

We are often told we offer the best computer repair, sales, service and support in Greenville and the Upstate, but the Greenville News is currently looking for people to participate in their poll for the “Best of the Upstate 2010″ and we would be honored if you would take a couple minutes of your time and vote…

Here is the link to the poll: http://www.zoomerang.com/Survey/WEB22AM8P6RVZN

What’s in it for you??? You can win a $500 dollar Visa gift card just for voting in 10 categories!

The category that we fit into is #34 Computer Store/Service Provider…  We are not listed there, so you would have to write in: Homeland Secure IT, LLC

Please consider writing in or selecting these other great places:

#22 Bartender

Brad at Thaicoon Ricefire (We love this guy, super nice, and does a great job)

#28 Carpet Cleaners?

McAbee’s Custom Carpets (This is Pamela’s family owned business)

#34 Computer Store/Service Provider?

Homeland Secure IT, LLC  (US! Wouldn’t you know it!??!)

#45 Jewelry Store?

Julie’s Jewels & Gifts (Julie is awesome – she can get anything for you if she doesn’t have it, or she can have it made)

#50 Mexican Restaurant?

Cancun of Piedmont (This is a client of our’s… Best Mexican food in Piedmont. Oh wait, the ONLY Mexican food in Piedmont!)

Thank you for your support!!!!!!!!!!

If you would like to participate go to: http://www.zoomerang.com/Survey/WEB22AM8P6RVZN

You can win a $500 dollar Visa gift card just for voting in 10 categories!

You just fill out some information about yourself (if you want a chance at winning) then select the best places in the Upstate of SC!

Please consider writing in or selecting these places:

#22 Bartender

Brad at Thaicoon Ricefire (We love this guy, super nice, and does a great job)

#28 Carpet Cleaners?

McAbee’s Custom Carpets (This is Pamela’s family owned business)

#34 Computer Store/Service Provider?

Homeland Secure IT, LLC  (US! Wouldn’t you know it!??!)

#45 Jewelry Store?

Julie’s Jewels & Gifts (Julie is awesome – she can get anything for you if she doesn’t have it, or she can have it made)

#50 Mexican Restaurant?

Cancun of Piedmont (This is a client of our’s… Best Mexican food in Piedmont. Oh wait, the ONLY Mexican food in Piedmont!)

#55 Best NEW Upstate Business

Homeland Secure IT, LLC (Hey, it’s us again!)

Thanks again for your support of Homeland Secure IT, we really couldn’t do it without our awesome friends, family and clients!  Sure, we could still offer the best computer service, repair & network support in Greenville and the Upstate, but what would it matter without you!?!

Thank you so much for your help!  BTW: If you have a business you would like someone to vote on, please respond to this post…

John

And the Winner of the Cisco Flip MinoHD camcorder is

Now for the moment you have been waiting for…   Drum roll please…..

Well first I will explain what we were doing for those who don’t have a clue.

A few months ago, Homeland Secure IT entered a contest on Brickfish.com that was put on by Cisco…  It was called “Heros of the Human Network”, which had businesses and organizations put up a reason why they should win something from Cisco. We entered, and then posted that we had entered on Facebook, Twitter and MySpace, and a few websites… We asked that everyone go vote for us, and they did.  Not only did they vote, they reposted our request, and though we didn’t win the 5 thousand dollars from Cisco, we won a Cisco Flip MinoHD  camcorder!!!!

We decided that since we already have a Flip, we would give it away to the same people who had supported us and helped us win it!

These are cool little cameras. Full 720p digital camcorder that you can slip in your pocket with built-in software to allow you to make quick edits and upload to your favorite site like YouTube.com. I have a lot of fun with mine, and the winner will also have fun with theirs I am sure!

To determine a winner, I took the list of people who are on our mailing list, and those who subscribe to this blog, and ran a random number generator to pick a number that corresponded to the list of subscribers. 15 was the lucky number!

Andrea Bennett was lucky number 15 and she has been notified via email.  Should Andrea not respond, we will just give it to someone else, but my money is on a quick response from her!

Thank you to everyone for playing along in our little game! Who knows, maybe we can do it again sometime soon!!!!   Have a great week…

Win an ultra cool, ultra compact Cisco Flip MinoHD camcorder!

Are you the type of person who never wins anything? Then this contest is for you. Your chances currently are 1 in 70!

How do you enter? All you have to do is subscribe to this blog and put up with my daily rambling. To do this, just scroll down and find the “Follow Me” frame on the right, input your email address and subscribe to email updates. Those who subscribe to email updates will get a daily email which will contain the blog posts from the previous day and no matter how much I ramble, you should only receive one email.

What if you don’t want my junk in your inbox? Welllll, you could optionally email me and I will then add you to our spam list, uhmmm I mean our “Secure IT Alerts” list, where we send out important security bulletins in email usually no more than twice a month, or whenever major updates and/or vulnerabilities are announced.

Some silly rules: This contest is open to everyone where contests are legal in the USA. There are no age limitations, except where limited by law. You are expected to subscribe from only one email address, not 50…  Those who are subscribed multiple times will be disqualified. Employees of Homeland Secure IT, LLC should be disqualified, but they are not, nor are their children or spouses. If *I* am selected, I will run the selection again – see below… The winner can pick up the camera at our office in Greenville, SC during normal business hours, otherwise it will be packaged and shipped out via UPS or US Postal Service.

How will the winner be selected? Each user who enters will be assigned a number, the first subscriber to the blog is #1 (That’s me), the last one to subscribe before the contest date is up will get the final number. Those in the “Secure IT Alerts” mailing list e added assigned the next numbers up from subscribers of the blog.  I will then run a random number generator to pick a number between 1 and xxxx and then notify the corresponding person via email and post to the blog.

Sounds simple right? I hope so. So subscribe and may the force be with you.  Winner will be selected on June 1st 2010.  In the event the winner does not respond within 7 days, I’ll re-run the selection process and try again!

Good luck!

Thanks to the Cisco “Human Network” brickfish contest for providing us with this camera. I would have just kept it, but I already have one of these great Cisco Flip MinoHD cameras, and since you guys helped us win it by voting for Homeland Secure IT and making us the “Most Viral” entry, it is only right that one of you get it!

Greenville has continued to make their desire for Google’s High Speed Fiber deployment known, through a Facebook fan page, untold numbers of blog postings and websites, face-to-face meetings, the official Greenville We Are Feeling Lucky website http://www.WeAreFeelingLucky.com and by voting in the questionable http://www.googlefiber.com/ voting page.

Well the UNOFFICIAL Google Fiber vote that was supposed to last until May 6th has now been extended another month, where there will be a death-match between the most popular cities I imagine. More information about that is available here: http://www.googlefiber.com/voting-challenge-round-2-begins-may-7/

The GoogleFiber.com site is very sketchy… The owner is from India apparently, and of course it IS an unofficial vote, and there has been cheating on the parts of individuals, as well as the exclusion of many people who wanted to vote while at work (They made it where you could not vote multiple times from the same IP, such as a corporate network uses)…

My two cents on this is – keep on voting, keep on supporting Greenville in any way you can. Also, post to Twitter with the tags of #LuckyGVL and #GoogleOnMain ANYTIME you have something positive to say about Greenville and technology.  Who knows, maybe we can catch the eye of Google and they too will decide that Greenville is the best place they could pick to deploy that tasty 1 Gbps high speed fiber network!

I have started a Race for the Cure team called G(o)(o)gle on Main, and invite you to join us in a 5k walk/run/race for the Cure! You can even join our team and SLEEP IN FOR THE CURE!!!!   If you cannot participate in the team, please make a contribution, even 5 or 10 dollars would be awesome. We are going to try to raise 5000 dollars.   That’s 1000 dollars a kilometer!

Help us run breast cancer out of town!

We saw where another local IT company, Plus Inc., has a number of their employees involved in the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure that will take place in September and thought that was a great idea! In fact, two of us here donated to their goal… See, my wife’s mother is a 15 year breast cancer survivor, so this is near and dear to her heart and we couldn’t stop with just a contribution…

So we started a team for our company, and then it hit me, I was not thinking broad enough. We need to harness the power of a great event that took place a few weeks ago called “Google On Main”, and try to get the 2200+ people involved with that to join this awesome cause, so we have renamed our team from “Homeland Secure IT” to “G(o)(o)gle On Main” and have started telling people about it. Our goal is to raise 5000 dollars, which should be easy, right?

Why not join our team and participate in the walk/run/race? We would love to have the company and the inspiration for us to drag or fat bottoms 5k for this cause!

Okay, so you are lazy, you can actually “Sleep in for the Cure”… That’s right, you can contribute and select “Sleep in for the Cure” and while you sleep, your hard earned money is doing something useful!

The site to signup or support the Race for the Cure is:

http://scmountainstomidlands.info-komen.org/site/TR/RacefortheCure/GNV_SCMountainstoMidlandsAffiliate?team_id=132981&pg=team&fr_id=1792

More information about Google On Main is at http://www.WeAreFeelingLucky.com and you can follow #GoogleOnMain and #LuckyGVL on Twitter too.

SuperHosts.Net offers super web hosting and design in Greenville and Upstate SC

I keep getting asked if I know anyone who does web hosting and design in Greenville / Upstate SC and I am surprised that more people do not know that Homeland Secure IT does that in-house, they just think of us for computer repair, computer service, computer sales and computer consultation, etc.  We’re not just about computers, servers and networks….

SuperHosts.Net is our web hosting & design business. It was started a number of years ago, and when we formed Homeland Secure IT, LLC, we incorporated SuperHosts into the new entity. It’s still the same hosting & design business, just under a different umbrella if you will.

SuperHosts is not the perfect solution for every website. If you are looking for cookie cutter, dirt-cheap hosting, you are going to find it every direction you turn. Just Google for “Cheap Web Hosting” and you will get a few million hits. Our focus is on the businesses, organizations and individuals with a special need, a site that represents them or their brand, a site that they may wish to maintain themselves or maybe they want someone else to handle entirely. We specialize in the odd-ball services such the client who needs a custom interface written to handle input, or distribute data in some specialized way. We have programmers who can provide real-time data manipulation, live databases and cross-site linking. Need a blog? Live Chat? Forums? That’s our bag, baby!

What you will find is a web host and design team that is very in touch with what you want and need. From custom graphics, logos and branding to menus for your restaurant that match the website layout/theme. We also do SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and can skyrocket your site to the top of Google, Bing, Yahoo and the rest of the search engines.

Thinking about delving into social media? We can help build a presence for you, and teach you how to effectively monitor and use the various social networking sites and tools such as Twitter, Facebook, Linked-In, Plaxo, Spoke, FourSquare and yes, even MySpace. Don’t have time to work with social media? We can refer you to a “Ghost Writer” who can assume your identity, learn your brand and become active in social media FOR YOU!

Of course, we can and do offer the stock template type sites, starter sites, “business card” sites, and domains just like everyone else.

We also know our limitations, and that is when we call in a range of experts who can assist. If we cannot handle the job, we will turn you over to one of the great minds in Greenville who can help. We work with and know of many awesome and inspirational places.

Want a free consultation? Email or call 990-4748 for more info!

What you will find a collabrative effort on the behalf of 185 people in 12 countries, who participated in a “virtual choir”, sending in clips (245 I believe in total!) to be arranged into one piece that is beautifully done! Overcoming the noise issue of the various submitted clips would be challenging all by itself, then mixing the audio to the desired levels, and do the video editing on top of this would be so time consuming that I would never be able to do any actual work to pay the bills.

I believe this has to be one of the best collaborative efforts that I have seen on the internet in regards to music.

It also underscores the importance of bandwidth in music / video… 185 people sending one person a ton of clips would consume great gobs of bandwidth, especially if the submitters were sending high quality audio and/or video. Here in Greenville, SC, we are trying to catch the eye of Google, who is going to pick one city in America to use as a testbed for their unbelievably fast Google High Speed Fiber. In fact, it is so fast that it exceeds the speed that most home and business LANs operate right now. That’s right, the data that moves from your work computer to your business server is probably moving slower than the 1 Gigabit Per Second fiber connection would bring internet to you!

Imagine a group of musicians in the same town, performing their parts for a track from their home, while it is being recorded in a master studio for mix down, in real-time! The latency would be overcome with time correction. Everyone would hear the same click-track….  Any issues, corrected in post. Individual parts punched in from remote too. This gets me excited!!!  THAT is why I am so adamant about the #GoogleOnMain / #LuckyGVL  movement! http://www.WeAreFeelingLucky.com for more info!

Of course there are bazillion business collaboration advantages to high speed internet as well, but I won’t get into those now….  It is the weekend for a few more hours – enjoy it!

Please take a moment to vote for Greenville, SC in this poll:

Again, even if you are NOT in Greenville, but live in the Upstate, or maybe another town in our region, the entire area would benefit from a deployment of Google Fiber! Take 2 seconds and select Greenville, SC… GoogleOnMain / Google On Main / LuckyGVL / We Are Feeling Lucky is only getting started!