Hardware Technology

Wireless Media Center for TV/HD and More

I came across a really nice looking piece of equipment earlier today from a company called MVIXUSA (www.mvixusa.com) which has created a truly portable, wireless media center for your home entertainment center. The device I’m talking about is the MX-760HD and it looks like it might fit nicely with any home entertainment center.
This [...]

Interesting News Miscellaneous

Daughtry covers U2 – Sunday Bloody Sunday

Daughtry, one of my recent favorites (watching him come up through American Idol) and turn into a smash hit, recently covered another one of my older favorite bands, U2.
Daughtry’s cover of “Sunday Bloody Sunday” is excellent, and worth a watch. Check it out here.

Interesting News

Billy Joel Fan? Check these Guys Out!

Billy Joel tribute band “Big Shot” hails from Long Island New York and plays a lot of local venues throughout the Long Island, NYC and PA areas.
I happened to come across their website a few months ago, and I was really impressed by the quality of their music.  Exceptionally tight, and they sound just [...]

Interesting News Technology

Protect Your ClickBank "Thank You" Page

Selling digital products on ClickBank is a great way to earn extra income, and link up with affiliates from all over the Internet.  When you first set up your account and create your sales page and thank you page, there really isn’t any security built in to keep people from trying to figure out your [...]

Interesting News

Amazing Artist - Autism and the Human Camera

I came across a video of Stephen Wiltshire, a London artist who is an absolutely amazing artist.  He’s able to look at something once, and draw it in amazing detail days later.
In this video, he’s taken up in a helicopter over the City of Rome and given a 45-minute aerial tour of the city.  He [...]

Interesting News Miscellaneous

Daughtry covers U2 – Sunday Bloody Sunday

Daughtry, one of my recent favorites (watching him come up through American Idol) and turn into a smash hit, recently covered another one of my older favorite bands, U2.
Daughtry’s cover of “Sunday Bloody Sunday” is excellent, and worth a watch. Check it out here.

Miscellaneous

Baby Middle Names

Having three children, my wife and I named our children months ahead of time to (with names picked out if they were a boy or girl) and I never really gave much thought to how difficult a task that could be. 
We have a few sets of friends who are a few years behind us in [...]

Miscellaneous

Remind me not to use this ATM

Looks like someone forgot the do the final round of user testing on this ATM, which is displaying the Windows XP Activation message! I wouldn’t want to be in the IT group that signed off on that user testing.
It’s amazing how things that seem like they should be a no-brainer slip through the cracks.
Hopefully this [...]

Miscellaneous

Site Updated to WordPress 2.3

I upgraded the site today to WordPress 2.3, which was a very easy process. Upgrading consisted of:

Downloading the 2.3 source files
Extracting the files locally
FTP’ing them to my server (overwriting the existing files)
Running the upgrade script (upgrade.php)

That was pretty much it.. took about 5 minutes. Now granted, the size of my site is [...]

Miscellaneous

Welcome to TeamREES

Hello and welcome to my little section of cyberspace. My name is Christopher D. Rees, and this is my personal site that is used to keep people informed about my business, teaching schedule, upcoming video releases, etc. It is also a great starting point for students, other instructors, and IT professionals to [...]

SEO Technology

How well does Your Website Rank?

I’ve been online since I was an early teenager back in the early to mid 80’s, running Bulletin Boards (BBS) years before the Internet.  I was on Prodigy and CompuServe years before most of my friends had even heard of the Internet.
Once the Internet became mainstream, I became involved in web design and really have [...]

SEO Training

Improving your Site - Bounce Rate

Something a lot of people who are new to website development, and SEO (Search Engine Optimization) overlook is how effective is their website? After all, a website is a collection of individual pages, and typically we want people to move from one page to another, right?
However, often times the navigation of the site is confusing, [...]

Technology

25 Reasons it’s Good to be an IT Guy

Great post over at Palaestra Training on 25 Reasons it’s Good to be an IT Guy (or girl for that matter).
There aren’t too many women in IT (relatively speaking) but that’s slowly changing. 
Salaries, environment and technology in general is making the IT industry more appealing to women.
Check out Palaestra’s post and see if [...]

Technology

Top 10 Highest Paying Senior-Level IT Jobs

If you are a senior-level person in the IT industry and not making 6 figures (and who doesn’t want to do that), you need to re-evaluate your strategy. 
If you’re brand new, then of course you have to put in the time, make the right moves and position yourself in the right sector.
However, if you [...]

Technology

Windows XP SP3 RC1 RDP Client Time-Bombed!

If you installed Windows XP SP3, thinking you’ll be ahead of the curve and check out the new features, enhanced security, etc., I’m right there with you. 
I like to be up on things as much as possible, and Release Candidates certainly don’t scare me away.  I routinely run them on production boxes, and have [...]

Interesting News Technology

Protect Your ClickBank "Thank You" Page

Selling digital products on ClickBank is a great way to earn extra income, and link up with affiliates from all over the Internet.  When you first set up your account and create your sales page and thank you page, there really isn’t any security built in to keep people from trying to figure out your [...]

Technology Training

Top IT Certifications for 2008

Many companies are already chomping at the bit to take advantage of many of the features Windows Server 2008 offers, such as improvements to Terminal Services, Server Virtualization and security enhancements including bitlocker and read-only domain controllers for branch-office type installations. 
Many of the services and features included in Windows Server 2008 will be able to [...]

SEO Technology

How well does Your Website Rank?

I’ve been online since I was an early teenager back in the early to mid 80’s, running Bulletin Boards (BBS) years before the Internet.  I was on Prodigy and CompuServe years before most of my friends had even heard of the Internet.
Once the Internet became mainstream, I became involved in web design and really have [...]

Technology

Windows Vista SP1 Review

Well I’ve been using Vista SP1 for a few days now, and I have to admit I think it’s brought some improvements to the overall user experience. I was about ready to scrap Vista because of the annoying little things that just flat-out shouldn’t be there (i.e. getting a spinning hourglass when creating [...]

Technology Training

IT Salaries and Demand on the Rise

Several recent surveys, including the recent article by Computer World shows that demand for IT workers is growing at the highest rate in several years. As a result, salaries are also on the rise. Why? Companies need talented, motivated Information Technology professionals and many companies report difficulty in finding those people.

Technology Training

Cisco CCNA 640-802 Update Released

Palaestra Training released an updated version of their best selling Cisco CCNA Certification training this week.

The updates covers the new material in the 640-802 exam, including Cisco’s Security Device Manager (SDM), Wireless Communication, Access List enhancements in Cisco’s newer IOS versions, and IPv6.

Hardware Technology

Wireless Media Center for TV/HD and More

I came across a really nice looking piece of equipment earlier today from a company called MVIXUSA (www.mvixusa.com) which has created a truly portable, wireless media center for your home entertainment center. The device I’m talking about is the MX-760HD and it looks like it might fit nicely with any home entertainment center.
This [...]

Technology Training

Top IT Certifications for 2008

Many companies are already chomping at the bit to take advantage of many of the features Windows Server 2008 offers, such as improvements to Terminal Services, Server Virtualization and security enhancements including bitlocker and read-only domain controllers for branch-office type installations. 
Many of the services and features included in Windows Server 2008 will be able to [...]

Training

Microsoft Outlook 2003 Training - New Release!

Palaestra Training has just released a new training series: Microsoft Outlook 2003 Training. This is an exciting series, from our new instructor, Sid Miller. Sid is an Office expert that really makes it easy to learn all of the features Outlook has to offer.
Whether your a home user or business user, chances [...]

Training

Cisco CCNA Training Video over 20,000 views on YouTube!

Palaestra Training’s CCNA Certification Training video on Frame Relay has gotten over 20,000 views on YouTube in just over 6 months time.
Jason Emerson, Palaestra Training’s Cisco CCNA instructor has a great conversational style, and makes learning technically advanced concepts fun.
That’s an amazing amount of interest for a technical training video, and a testament to [...]

Technology Training

IT Salaries and Demand on the Rise

Several recent surveys, including the recent article by Computer World shows that demand for IT workers is growing at the highest rate in several years. As a result, salaries are also on the rise. Why? Companies need talented, motivated Information Technology professionals and many companies report difficulty in finding those people.

Technology Training

Cisco CCNA 640-802 Update Released

Palaestra Training released an updated version of their best selling Cisco CCNA Certification training this week.

The updates covers the new material in the 640-802 exam, including Cisco’s Security Device Manager (SDM), Wireless Communication, Access List enhancements in Cisco’s newer IOS versions, and IPv6.

Training

Department of Defense DoD 8570.01-M

What is the DoD 8570.1-M?  It’s part of a directive that’s part "Information Assurance Workforce Improvement Program" which mandates that every full- and part-time military service member, defense contractor, civilian and foreign employee with privileged access to a DoD system, regardless of job series or occupational specialty obtains a commercial certification credential that has [...]

SEO Training

Improving your Site - Bounce Rate

Something a lot of people who are new to website development, and SEO (Search Engine Optimization) overlook is how effective is their website? After all, a website is a collection of individual pages, and typically we want people to move from one page to another, right?
However, often times the navigation of the site is confusing, [...]

Training

Internet Safety Lesson - How does the Internet Work?

When I teach class, especially to beginners or when I’m talking with parents about Internet Safety, a question I’m often asked is “How does the Internet actually work?” Well, in reality it’s obviously a complex topic, but we can certainly break it down into familiar terms. When you type in a web address, like www.palaestratraining.com, [...]

Training

Best Entry Level IT Certification

A question often asked by people starting out in the IT (Information Technology) field is “What is the BEST entry-level IT certification to get started with”? That’s an excellent question and one that I’m sure garners a variety of responses. For the most, it’s generally agreed that CompTIA’s A+ Certification Training is an [...]

Training

Bill Ferguson joins Palaestra Training - MCDST Training currently in Production

Palaestra Training is excited about the addition of Bill Ferguson to their team of seasoned technical trainers. Bill Ferguson is a world-class instructor who brings a great deal of experience and professionalism to the table.
Bill is currently working on Microsoft MCDST training, which will be released sometime in October. Palaestra Training’s MCDST Certification [...]

Uncategorized

Windows XP SP3 and HD Audio

I recently was playing around with Windows XP SP3 (build 3264) and I slipstreamed the service pack into my Windows XP install media to make installing a new build easier (SP3 would already be installed).
Normally, it’s a pretty straightforward process, however with SP3 (at least the RC build I was using) didn’t take HD audio [...]

Uncategorized

Quite Disturbing even if Remotely True

A friend recently sent me a link to a movie called ZeitGeist, which is a very interesting analysis of everything from the origins of religion to the 9/11 attacks, to everyone eventually being v-chipped with RFID tags to track everything from movement to spending habits.
I have mixed feelings about the contents of the video, and [...]

Uncategorized

Coolest Stick Figure on the Planet

My son CJ showed me this little film the other day, and it really caught my eye.  I got a kick out of it, and it’s definitely worth looking at.  This has to be one of the best little “Stick Figure” films I’ve seen. Very well done, this is a small masterpiece. Created by Alan [...]

Uncategorized

SEO Goldmine Videos - New Free Training from the Guys at StomperNet

If you’ve ever wondered about Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and wanted to get some information on how it was done, or even if you’re a seasoned professional looking to hone your skills, I would highly recommend you take a look at this new video series. 
This series, dubbed StomperNet’s “Going Natural 2.0″ is being [...]

Uncategorized

Microsoft MCDST Certification Training - New Release!

Palaestra Training has just released a new product, Microsoft MCDST Certification training for the 70-271 exam. 
This series is by Bill Ferguson, an expert instructor who literally wrote the book on MCDST Certification.  He’s the author of the best selling book, MCDST Certification Study Guide, by Sybex.
Bill brings his many years of experience to this [...]

Uncategorized

First Impressions of Windows Live Writer

Found a VERY nifty tool that allows you to write blogs offline, and sync them up to your blog (either a hosted blog service, or your own) and get the benefit of full WYSIWYG editing tools. There are a number of other offline tools out there, so this certainly isn’t the first one [...]

Uncategorized

Buy and Sell Websites

If you’re looking for a crash course on the ins and outs of buying and selling websites, identifying niche markets and learning how to determine a site’s value, the folks from StomperNet have created a new site/system called Dominiche to teach you just that.
Check them out, they have a few free videos that give you [...]