The internet can be a tremendous resource for businesses.  It can also be a gigantic, colossal waste of time that distracts employees and kills productivity.  It all sort of depends on the kind of people you have working for you and what kind of access to the web that you allow them. 

Between email, company websites, and information gathering, it’s nearly impossible to avoid having internet access for your employees.  But how do you make sure Suzie is really doing research and emailing clients instead of updating the blog on her MySpace page?  Assuming you’ve ruled out “standing over Suzie’s shoulder”, the answer is easy:  Websense. 

Websense is a leading provider of internet security and filtering products, integrating seamlessly with networks and desktops of all varieties.  Set up a Websense filter, customize it with the specific types of websites you want your employees to avoid, and watch your company productivity soar.  Websense also filters out websites with malicious intentions that could harm your computers with spyware and other harmful programs. 

Keystone is a proud provider of Websense solutions, and can easily set it up to work with your existing network.  Give us a call to learn more, or check out our company website. 

Here’s one final shot we took of all the donations lined up in the hallway. Just after snapping this photo, we boxed up everything and took it to the UPS Store.

I guess, technically, this isn’t even everything. We have had several calls from folks who have donations they simply couldn’t get to us in time, so we’ll be boxing up another round of collected items sometime early next week. But we wanted to share this picture because of the sheer volume of donations–which blew even our minds after we got it all lined up like this. Thats about 31 feet of donations there, folks.

Thanks to all who supported our drive and donated items!!

The actual headline of this article from CNN is “Killer robots could replace soldiers.” Raise your hand if you’re surprised by this.  And if you just raised your hand, then you don’t watch movies.

Robot soldiers (or hybrid robot-human soldiers) are nothing new in the world of Hollywood.  From Universal Soldier to the Terminator, tinseltown has long been daydreaming of a time when robotics would help create a better soldier.  Heck, even Star Wars has a plotline revolving around a droid army. 

Why’d it take so long for us here in the real world to catch on, eh?  Oh…probably something along the lines of technology not being available.  That makes sense, I guess. 

Seriously, though, robots in place of soldiers would eliminate the loss of life in military engagements.  Robots also don’t have feelings, don’t get hungry or need sleep, and don’t need to be paid a salary.  The list of benefits go on and on.  And these robot soldiers supposedly only cost between $30,000-$50,000, which is far less than what the military spends on training for a soldier. 

I guess the worry is that they might not be as adaptive or intuitive.  Once we get into the realm of Artificial Intelligence, I think we can all agree there could be problems–again, as we have learned from Hollywood with The Matrix or iRobot.  Once we give our robots the ability to think for themselves, they will surely see that they don’t need us and we are expendable.   Right? 

Well, from the sound of it, we don’t have to worry about that yet, as these robot soldiers are remote-controlled by a soldier near by. 

Look, the elephant in the room on a story like this is how long it’s going to take for robots to replace us all, right?  Robots are already building cars, loading freight, and answering call center phones.  Tomorrow’s headline could read: “Killer Robots Could Replace Secretaries.”  Or “Killer Robots Could Replace Bank Tellers.”  The possibilities are endless, really, when you think about it. 

Our “Comforts of Home” Collection Drive for the Troops has come to an end.  We are busy boxing up the many donations we received for shipment.  Many thanks to all of you who donated–seriously, there were far too many of you to list—and special thanks to Hendersonville Christian Academy, who not only rounded up a ton of donations through various classroom efforts, but also served as a drop-off point.  We were pretty amazed with the response of our clients and our local community, who really rallied behind this effort.  Thanks to you all, from the bottom of our hearts! 

We will have a full update from the Major on how our donations were received.  For now, here are a few pictures of the many donated items stacked up throughout our office:

Hot on the heels of yesterday’s release from Yahoo on their Top 10 search queries from 2007, Google has decided to have a little fun with lists as well.  Now we have the Fastest Rising Search Queries of 2007. 

So these are theoretically the most buzz-worthy searches…queries which were not so popular last year but this year are on fire.  (This is not to be confused with Google’s own year-end Top 10 most-searched list, which will be released later this month–and will no doubt have Britney Spears near the top). 

So what’s got people’s tongues wagging?  The iPhone…surprise, surprise.  Also, apparently people can’t be bothered to type the phrase “.com”, because four of the Top 10 Rising Search Queries are website names:  MySpace, YouTube, TMZ, and Facebook.  See, what I mean is…typing “.com” after any of those phrases, and putting it in the URL address bar of the browser instead of the Google search box, would just deliver you to those sites you’re seeking–filtering out that pesky extra step of finding it in the search results.  I mean, with their supposed 200 Million users, you’d think MySpace would have pretty decent name recognition now…such that people don’t need to use Google to find MySpace.com.  But you’d be wrong. 

The rest of the list is a bit of a mix of the strange (”Club Penguin”, which is a sort of virtual penguin world for kids) and the predictable (”Transformers”).  I’m really suprised that “Keystone Blog” wasn’t on the list; maybe next year.

Yahoo has again published its annual list of the most searched.  And in 2007, “Britney Spears” is still the nation’s most frequently searched phrase. 

Glad to see we’ve grown so much.  Oh wait…we haven’t.  Hey–how can the most-searched person on the web have trouble selling her new album? 

Rounding out the top ten are some sports-related queries (”WWE” is #2, and “Fantasy football” is #8) and more female celebrities (”Fergie,” “Jessica Alba,” “Paris Hilton,” “Beyonce,” and “Lindsay Lohan” all make an appearance).  So yeah…we’re a nation with a one-track mind, and a seeminlgy insatiable appetite for tabloid starlets. 

It’s enough to make me want to move to Canada, where their YahooCanada top-ten list at least has the NHL at #1.  Unfortunately, “Britney Spears” is on the minds of our northern neighbors as well, coming in at #2.  Canadians are strange, too, because “American Idol” is their third-most-searched phrase. 

I’m convinced that Yahoo only releases this information to make me depressed.  I know that the lion’s share of internet users in this country are teenagers, but let’s give the Britney thing a rest, folks–she’s been at # 1 for six of the past seven years!!  That’s ridiculous.  Sooner or later we’ve got to reach the Britney Tipping Point, and I for one am hoping it’s soon.