Scott Spiro Blog

Here at CSG, we have been involved in a wide variety of technical projects over the years. However, when the  Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation asked our team to assist with installation of a “life support” system for the Magna Carta, (written in 1215 and carried under armored guard from it’s home at London’s Lincoln Cathedral Archives to its current display at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library) we were thrilled indeed!

Carlo Pulido, CSG Field Engineer was responsible for ensuring smooth communications from the computer system within the airtight display case back to the UK, where temperature and humidity inside the case is carefully maintained and monitored.

Translated from Latin, “The Great Charter” is one of the most famous documents ever written. The Declaration of Independence is just one historical document modeled after the Magna Carta.

The Magna Carta is on display at the Library from January 23 – June 20.  You may call (800) 410-8354 for additional information.

Any of us who spend a good deal of time on the California freeway system ultimately feel the crunch of hours wasted on the road. In an effort to combat this increasingly unproductive part of our day, we resort to strange methodologies for staying in touch and getting things done. Whether that means texting with three fingers on a mobile phone while driving in and out of rush hour traffic via stick shift or talking on our cell while writing a manifesto e-mail it all becomes increasingly more dangerous.

In addition to this, the state of California has mandated that it is now illegal to talk on a cell without a handsfree unit. It is also illegal to send text messages.

Driving into CSG Corporate in downtown Los Angeles as well as visiting our customers can keep me in my Prius 2-3 hours per day. Crazy? You bet. Part of everyday life in LA? Yes. Have I found a helping hand? I think so!

Enter Jott- a virtual assistant of sorts that lets you record notes and ideas with your voice. It also lets you send e-mail too which can be very handy while in the car and much safer than typing on your Blackberry while driving.

Jott makes software for the iPhone and the Blackberry. You can record to-do’s, appointments and notes while on the go. Jott’s amazing voice recognition technology converts your voice notes to text which is then synced with their system. From here, you can even sync with Microsoft Outlook and CSG’s Harmony Hosted Exchange Service. Jott also provides you with a toll-free number. Depending on your service level you can record jotts or retrieve RSS feeds while on the go using your cell phone. To learn more about Jott click here.

As you can see, I’ve had good experience with this product. Being able to send e-mails and record ideas and notes while on the road or anywhere else has resulted in a much better use of my time. I’ve used both the Blackberry and iPhone versions of the software and while there’s some definite improvements to be made Jott is on the right track and I encourage you to give it a try. 

Do you use Jott? If so, let me know what you think of it.

Welcome to the CSG Blog. This is my first post and I’d like to take a few moments to introduce myself and also talk about the purpose of this blog.

My name is Scott Spiro and I am the CEO of Computer Solutions Group, Inc. I enjoy working in the technology industry and helping our customers gain the most out of their technology investments. However, there is also a great deal of confusion as to which technology products are the most useful, which IT methodologies work the best in the SMB, and how an IT Department should react to the infinite amount of changes that occur each year in technology industry.

In this blog, I will attempt to “de-mystify” some of the technology utilized by our firm, while also giving the general public an insight into how to implement operate your IT infrastructure correctly. Our focus will be on general IT news as well as the latest trends in remote backup/disaster recovery, virus protection, IT compliance, hosted Microsoft Exchange environments, and Green Computing.

Speaking of Green Computing, Why has CSG adopted a Green Computing platform? What does this mean? It means that our business practices and recommendations are based on new Green Technology platforms such as server virtualization, desktop virtualization, and data center co-location. Ultimately, these recommendations result in lower costs for our customers as well as better redundancy for their data. In general, these new practices are also better for our environment as a whole.

There’s a lot more, so stay tuned. We invite your participation here, and welcome to the Blog.