LATHAM, NEW YORK (August 20, 2013) – Sustainable IT solutions provider TurnKey Internet, Inc. announced today the rerelease of their cloud-hosted virtual desktop, the “TurnKey Desk 2.0.” With all new, easy-to-use features, the TurnKey Desk is now available on any smartphone, tablet, thin client, desktop PC or Mac. The platform is made easier to access, and can be preloaded with many more applications useful for individuals and businesses. Applications such as Microsoft Office and the Adobe Creative Suite or any customizable business applications needed, can be installed to the virtual desktop.

“By incorporating smartphones and tablets, the way a client can use the TurnKey Desk is almost limitless,” CEO, Adam Wills said. “Both start-up entrepreneurs and experienced CEO’s need a way to be able to easily work from their home, office, or while they are traveling. The TurnKey Desk allows this. Our virtual desktop provides security for any sized business to be confident that their information will always be safe and accessible in our SSAE-16 Type 2 certified data center.”

The TurnKey Desk can be used for companies where hundreds of employees are able to share files and documents with each other, be it down the hall, across the country or around the globe. Files can be accessed, shared and stored securely on the cloud to help make sharing documents easier and more efficient. The new platform allows for the option to have multiple images for various departments of an organization. These images contain the software applications specific for each department which can all be preset with permission levels for each user.

“Hosted Virtual Desktop market share is increasing every day. One of the reasons why, is the ability to replace aging office Desktop PC networks with Virtual Desktops accessed from thin clients,” Wills stated. “Thin clients cost far less than PC’s with less moving parts and need for maintenance. Since thin clients are only being used to access the virtual desktops, there are almost no IT related costs for your internal network once it is setup. Additionally, this improves your overall network security from our New York data center and decreases your overall costs.”

About Turnkey Internet

Founded in 1999, TurnKey Internet, Inc. is a full-service green data center and leading provider of sustainable web hosting and IT solutions. From its SSAE 16 Type 2 certified facility in Latham, NY—New York’s Tech Valley Region—TurnKey offers web hosting, communication services, web-based IT systems, software as a service (SaaS), enterprise colocation services, and computing as a service to clients in more than 150 countries. For more information, please call (518) 618-0999 or visit www.turnkeyinternet.net/media.

The expansion of our data center is official like a person with a whistle!

And, of course, We want to keep you all up-to-date and continue to share our photos with you. Why? Because you – ladies and gentleman – should be as excited as we are. Our techs are working hard getting everything up, our sales and marketing teams are rolling out great promotions, and everyday brings all new excitement. That’s right. There’s new promotions, people, pool tables and plants.

*Pool tables and plants you say, Dylan?*

Yes, pool tables and plants.

So what’s been going on here? Well, let us just show you.

First off, we want to welcome back Jared (otherwise known as, “Hey, intern!” or “More coffee, please.”) . You might recognize him. He interned here in the winter and has since graduated college! Jared is back finishing up his internship and we are glad to have him back in the Marketing Room.

Here we have Brian (Operations Manager) and Joe (Lead Technician). They have been hooking up a new pod  in the DC and have been kicking butt. Keep up the work, boys!

And how do they stay sane during all those hours of work? Bumpin’ tunes!

Here is what the new pod looks like from the cloud! Or, well, from a ladder…

Before and after. Wires coming into the DC.

Some clamps and cords!

Our new plant, Leaf Ericson!

TurnKey mini pool table.

Last, but not least. We are giving away TurnKeychain Flashlights! If you want to win one, head to our Facebook page and like, comment or share the photo.

Sustainable IT solutions provider TurnKey Internet,
Inc. announced today the release of their upgraded platform designed for their web
conferencing product, Voxwire. Voxwire Systems, Inc. was acquired in 2009 by TurnKey
Internet, who began supporting the product alongside their web hosting cloud services.
Voxwire web conferencing can accommodate thousands of attendees per meeting with
integrated audio and video, screen and file sharing, PowerPoint presentations, polling and
other collaborative features.

Voxwire’s platform has been enhanced to meet today’s more mobile market. It is now
compatible on all popular mobile systems including the iPhone, iPad, Android and
BlackBerry and is being offered for a 14-day, no credit card required, free trial. Upon signing
up, a free app can be installed on any of these devices, or can be used on a tablet, laptop
or desktop. Multiple moderators can be assigned for small or large group presentations and
can be broadcasted to unlimited users across the globe.

With the improved Voxwire platform, TurnKey aims to offer easier-to-use services to
connect customers and colleagues across the globe from its green data center in Albany,
New York. “Voxwire expands our reach to a wide range of industries that are integrating
web conferencing into their daily operations,” said CEO, Adam Wills. “Schools, businesses,
or any entity looking to grow their distance learning or conference capabilities will find
Voxwire is a perfect solution.”

OK, this joke is a stretch, but here it goes anyways….

Paul Mathis is probably happy his name is not Paul Mathe. Why? Because it seems like he’s got it out for the word “the.” While it is the number one used word in the English language, Mr. Mathis is looking to get rid of it… or at least for when we have to type it.

Mathis is an Australian restaurant owner who is hoping to change the way we use the word “the,” by creating a symbol like the “and” ampersand symbol (&).

“The word ‘and’ is only the fifth-most used word in English and it has its own symbol — the ampersand,” Mathis said. “Isn’t it time we accorded the same respect to ‘the’?”

I mean, the man’s got a point, right? Mathis created a little diddly that looks like this:

Simple, sleek, and hey! It even saves you two characters for when you tweet.

“The main functionality of this is in the texting space,” Mathis goes on. “Maybe in 500 years’ time people will be amazed that there was a time when we didn’t use (the symbol)”.

While I think it’s a great idea, Mathis is having a tough time convincing Apple.  After a request for them to change their keyboards, Apple responded saying, “Apps should be engaging and exciting, enabling users to do something they couldn’t do before; or to do something in a way they couldn’t do before or better than they could do it before.”

In 34 words, Apple crushed a man’s dreams and did it all without using the word, “the,” once.

Take that, Paul Mathe, I mean Mathis.

Remember those things called compact discs? Yea, you know- Those flimsy round things that came a few years after the cassette tape, and thousands of years after our parents chiseled sound into “vinyl records” with their cavemen friends? OK, maybe I’m being a little dramatic, but when was the last time you bought a physical CD? How about an entire album on iTunes?

We all know that technology is rapidly changing. Not only has the platform of which we listen to music changed, but the way we listen to music has changed.

Long gone are the days where people sit down and enjoy an album song by song. Album sales have plummeted and the power of the single is rising with every “Call Me Maybe.”

“We don’t have any rules. Everyone’s trying to figure it out. That’s why the Internet is like the Wild West. We need to write the new rules for what’s going on right now,” said rapper and business mogul, Shawn Carter (AKA Jay-Z).

Jay-Z is the new sheriff in town and he is taking over the Wild West of the Internet, and creating a new way to sell his album.

In June, during game five of the NBA Finals, Jay-Z not-so-casually dropped the news to millions of viewers that his new album “Magna Carta Holy Grail,” would be released on the 4^th of July to one million Samsung Galaxy customers via an app. Jay-Z is almost single-handedly turning fans of an artist into customers of a product, while still trying to keep the integrity of the album.

He is here to put a death to auto-tune and a resurrection to the “album,” where realistically he will make millions of dollars somewhere in between. The app is packaged nicely with pictures and lyrics- like a CD or album- but also intertwines videos and a way for Samsung to track your age and location (because not doing that is sooo 2008).

“The whole thing I wanted to do was have that fireplace or that radio moment where everyone’s just sitting in front of the thing listening to an album,” Carter goes on. “I want everyone to hear the album at one time.”

While I think most customers who are targeted to buy this album will have too short of an attention span to do so (especially with cellphone in hand), it is a great marketing scheme and an innovative way to start and push music where it may be heading.

If you’ve been hanging around the TurnKey data center for the past week, you’d be sure to hear a lot of “It’s here! It’s here! It’s here!” Why? Because TurnKey Internet has been receiving shipments of brand new servers and most importantly, the pieces to build Pod 2!

WAAAAY faster than expected, our data center will expand by over 20% and within the next 30 days we expect Pod 2 to be up and running. We’re using the same high-tech, green, environmentally conscious technology but on a larger scale. Trust us when we say- This is still just the beginning!

Not following us on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram yet? Well we got you covered (but you should still go do that!). Check out some photos below and get caught up.

Emily next to the truck!

Getting ready to bring ’em in.

Getting some help from the nice delivery guys!

Just a preview…

Racks on racks on racks!

I am the one percent.

No, I don’t have the 99% Movement outside my office, protesting here at TurnKey, but in a way, I am the One Percent. That is, the one percent of the office—and maybe of all IT offices in the country—that does not have an iPhone, Droid, Blackberry or any sort of smartphone device. Yes, I do hear it every day, people. I have been stuck with my Samsung Intensity II for the past 2 years, and the only thing intense about this phone is the scrutiny I get for it from my friends, co-workers, and loved ones.

Every day is like showing up to move-in day at college and bringing my desktop computer, while everyone else is running through the hallways with their iPads playing Angry Birds and Temple Run.

Imagine that it is 1997, and you are walking through a park, jamming out to Jewel’s new single “You Were Meant for Me.” All of the sudden, you see a guy with an 80’s boom box on his shoulder, pretending he’s “got game by the pound”, belting out Blackstreet’s “No Diggity.” Well, that guy would be me. And while I may have better taste in music than you, I certainly would be jealous that you could take a stroll and listen to your music privately with that classic Walkman.

There may be a problem, however—one that has persisted straight through years of technological developments to smartphones. These days, it seems easier to disconnect from human interaction and to hide behind a four-inch screen. I see it all the time. A few of my friends will get together on a Friday night and, at some point, I guarantee I’ll look around and find all of them silently Tweeting, texting, Instagraming, Facebooking, etc. It’s a problem that my 23-year-old self and most people 50 and up can relate to… We are not a part of the Smartphone Club.

I’ll admit that, even without a smartphone, I do this from time to time. I’ll be walking through the mall, and, although I’d love for someone to massage my hands with lotion, I am not willing to spend $50 on it and then have to do it myself every time after that. That is when I quickly grab my phone and pretend to check my text messages, avoiding any and all human interaction and blatantly ignoring the people waving products in my face. It is a habit—without a doubt, a bad one—but one that is shared by most of the people I know.

These issues are long-coming, and continue to rise as new technology does. It is inevitable that all of us without a smartphone will have to accept them. We will eventually have no option but to buy a smartphone, and will ultimately be a part of this culture someday.

But of course, these devices aren’t all bad, right? It is reported that nearly half of all Americans own a smartphone. So for what reasons may I soon jump to the maybe-not-so-dark side of the mobile telephone?

The first reason is that smartphones have basically eliminated the use of a GPS system, a map, or however you prefer to navigate. I can’t count how many times I got lost when living in New York City, and again after moving to Albany. Albany is one thing, now that I have my car and my GPS, but being lost in The Big City is a whole different ball game. Forget the danger of being alone and lost at night in the city (I leave my safety in the hands of Batman), the frustration of trying to get from one place to another, or simply being able to find a location, was enough for me to almost crack and get a smartphone.

Music is another reason that I became envious of smartphone owners. With applications like Spotify, a smartphone can eliminate the need for an MP3 player. A few months ago I left my iPod at my friend’s apartment in NYC and I still haven’t gotten it back. At this point, I don’t really need it since almost every song on that iPod is on Spotify. I can access Spotify with my computer, but I can only imagine how much I would use it if it was with me everywhere I go. It’s amazing to think about how much music I could consume in one day—while on a walk, driving in my car, grocery shopping, working out, etc. Smartphones open up a whole new outlet to discover, stream, and share music.

The last reason—for now—is what I feel my life, and millions of other people’s lives revolve around lately: the Internet.

I know this kind of encompasses the reasons I mentioned before, but it just goes to show how many benefits there are to a smartphone. To be able to Google a restaurant, find the time a movie is playing, Instagram a photo, Tweet a message to someone, or whatever else you are trying to do—having a computer in the palm of your hand, I imagine, makes some things in life a little easier. Being able to keep a schedule of what you need to do and where you need to be, to write notes and answer emails, to use the thousands of helpful apps available—a smartphone is becoming almost the staple of being a professional adult…or maybe even a functional member of society.

Here is where I need your help: Which smartphone do you prefer?

When I finally man up, grow a mustache, and get a smartphone, I’m sure Emily Wegener will keep you posted on the progress here at TurnKey Internet via our Instagram.

First things first, I do not consider myself a “car guy” whatsoever. I don’t know if Porsche is really pronounced “porsh” or “porsh-a”, I have no idea where Lexuses are manufactured, and I couldn’t tell you what’s under the hood of my dear Subaru that I named “Seabiscuit.” In fact, now that I think about it, I may even be overdue for an oil change…

However, here at TurnKey Internet, we are all about speed and keeping things green and sustainable. That is why I’d like to share some electric cars that are not only stylish, but easy on the environment, crazy-fast, and make me think that the future has arrived!

Now, let’s start with something basic…

The Chevy Volt was officially released in 2011. It may not be the coolest-looking in this bunch, but it’s probably the most affordable. The first one was placed in the General Motors Heritage Center for display, but the second one was auctioned off for $250,000. This money went to help fund math and science programs for Detroit public schools, which is absolutely worth mentioning and very stylish in its own way! The 2013 model will be out this August, and priced at around $40,000.

This next one is pretty darn cool-looking, but probably not the most efficient… and you won’t be able to get your hands on one until 2014. Feast your eyes on the Infiniti Emerg-E Concept—0-60 MPH in 4 seconds, but after 30 miles, be ready to pull over for another charge.

Next, we have the Fisker! While, style-wise, it might be one of my favorites, word has it that they have been cutting some jobs lately, and are supposedly close to going bankrupt. Regardless, here is the Fisker Karma. I wonder what could have brought them to bankruptcy!

A prime competitor of Fisker (if they survive) is a company by the name of Tesla. After ending the Roadster’s production in 2012, Tesla released the Model S. This car can get you 180 miles to 300 miles per charge, depending on the battery. The starting price for one of these bad boys is right around $95,000, and can easily exceed $100,000—but, hey… it costs around $650 to charge it for an entire year!

While I like the old Roadster better, the Model S has a weird, generic car “look”. It’s kind of like a Nissan Altima, if it got with Aston Martin and made a 4-wheeled love-child. In other words, it’s definitely classy-looking, but I’m not quite convinced I like it yet. Don’t get me wrong, if someone wants to buy me one, I’ll drive it.

Check out the Tesla Model S:

I will admit that I enjoy some fairly odd styles. I like paisley ties, and shirts like this. I’d probably even wear them together!

That being said, the electric car at the top of my list is the Mercedes- Benz SLS AMG E-Cell. As far as I could find, it is still in its final stages, and doesn’t have a set release date yet. It can make it to almost 100 miles per charge, and will cost you a couple-hundred-thousand bucks to purchase, but I can just imagine riding alongside 2 Chainz, and “pullin’ up to the scene with”… the majority of the “ceiling missin’”, in this:

Now, like I said, I am not a car kind of dude, so let me know if you think of anything else I can add to my wish-list before I send it off to Santa this year!

Remember, Earth Day is coming up quickly, so please stay green, and, of course, stay classy!

In 2009, Google went from having around 20,000 employees, to having millions of people all over the world working for them. Well… sort of.

You might already be familiar with what is pictured below. If not, let me explain to you a little bit about something that I was recently informed about –this magical thing called “reCAPTCHA”.

 In the year 2000, I was worried about passing the 4th grade. I was anticipating that all the computers in the world were going to explode due to Y2K. I was hoping that I could fend for my family and not die of Dysentery on The Oregon Trail. Needless to say, life was rough.

But Yahoo!—and hundreds of other web companies, for that matter—were dealing with a much larger epidemic than Dysentery—spam. No, not that gross, canned mystery meat, and definitely not George Michael’s Wham! This kind of spam is something (debatably) worse than both… combined!

We’ve all encountered spam in our email inboxes, but now, thanks to Luis von Ahn, we also have all run into what is stopping most of it.

Luis von Ahn grew up in Guatemala and worked in his family’s candy shop as a kid. Later on in his life, along with his college advisor, he was hired by Yahoo! to create a program that could tell the difference between a human and a form bot. They came up with “CAPTCHA”, which—and I’m serious here—stands for “Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart.”

While the name isn’t exactly the work of genius, these brilliant guys created a challenge-response test that could be predominantly passed by humans to block those evil form bots and eliminate as much spam as possible. These computer-generated, squiggly words are made so humans can read and submit them, but that computers cannot.

After becoming extraordinarily successful off this creation, Mr. von Ahn still found a weakness in his own program. The flaw? The 10 annoying seconds wasted while someone types in a CAPTCHA every time they come across one. After turning down a personal offer from Bill Gates to work for Microsoft and winning the MacArthur Fellowship Award in 2006, von Ahn re-created CAPTCHA and titled it…erm… reCAPTCHA! Luis von Ahn believed this new idea would be good for humanity, and as far as some other types of crowdsourcing go, I agree.

In 2009, Google bought reCAPTCHA and released it upon the masses. Now, what reCAPTCHA does is take the words we type in and use them to digitize old books and newspapers. These books and newspapers are scanned and turned into text-images by using “Optical Character Recognition” (OCR). The problem remains that computers still cannot read text as well as humans. A simple word like “of” could be interpreted as “at,” since old books and newspapers may have words that are damaged or hard to scan.

Here is where the superpower of humans comes in! We can read the word “of” and correctly submit “of,” instead of “at”, along with a computer-generated CAPTCHA word. So a reCAPTCHA image is combined with a CAPTCHA word, and placed at the login of something like an email. If we get the CAPTCHA word correct, we are in-there-like-swimwear. Even if we get the reCAPTCHA wrong and cannot decipher it ourselves, but get the CAPTCHA, we are still allowed access. The reCAPTCHA word will be tested by many other humans to increase the likelihood of it being deciphered correctly.

Using the aforementioned example of the word “of” being read as “at”, if people keep typing “of”, the word “of” will digitally replace the word that the OCR program recommended. After some time, millions of people are deciphering these scanned reCAPTCHA words and creating digitized versions of old New York Times newspapers and classic books for Google!

In months, with the power of reCAPTCHA and humans’ ability to read damaged words, 20 years’ worth of material is digitized and transcribed thanks to… well… you…me… Alan Rosenberg… maybe Luis von Ahn and Bill Gates… your mom? Everyone! In time, thanks to Luis von Ahn and his team, we will all be a part of digitizing millions of old texts to be distributed online. Now, where are our paychecks, Google?

Howdy’ do, Turnkey Lovers?

It’s your favorite technician, back again, with another piece of knowledge from my heart to yours. Well, that’s a bit misleading, as I actually need your help.

You see, not too long ago, my girlfriend and I drove down to good ol’ Georgia to spend Christmas with my family. This was the first time that my girlfriend spent with my family. Yeah, we’ve been dating for 2-years-plus and this was her first time meeting them. Well, let’s fast forward a bit here in the story. She met the family and everyone loved her, as expected. Now, this is a rather long drive to make from New York to Georgia. It actually took us about 16 hours. Not too bad, especially when you have some technology to keep you entertained.

What do you pack for technology on a trip? For us, it was:

1. Cellphone (x2)
2. Cellphone charger
3. Laptop (x2)

You might think we should have brought a GPS, but we both have Samsung Galaxy 3’s, so we didn’t need one.

Let’s jump ahead again to the drive back up to New York after a GREAT few days in Georgia. This is where things got interesting. On the way back, we placed one of our laptops on the back seat. At one point, we had to hit our brakes pretty hard…as there are people who can’t drive safely…and the laptop flew under the seat. Now, this wouldn’t be that big of deal, unless you add in a wet carpet from water leaking into the car. Well, as anyone out there may know…

Laptop + water = water damage.

We were hoping and praying that the laptop would be fine. That by some miracle, the laptop—let’s call her “Lappy”—would be OK. Well, this wasn’t exactly the case. When we booted it on, the video display wouldn’t even display anything. I knew Lappy was still online, but we couldn’t access her. Since I’m a slayer of tickets, fighting for top-notch customer support for every Turnkey Client, I knew the video card was now damaged. This put me in quite a conundrum:

1. Replace the laptop?
2. Replace the motherboard?
3. Purchase a tablet to replace the laptop?

Option 1 and option 2 are very similar. If I replace the laptop, it would essentially be the same as replacing the motherboard, and the cost would be just about equal. Enter: Option 3; purchase a tablet to replace the laptop. Now, this seems like a good option. I’ve been considering a tablet purchase for months, and what better time to get one than when your laptop dies because your carpet is too wet? Before I make such financial decisions, I like to look at the pros and cons. Here is a list of some of the pros and cons I’ve developed for this particular situation:

Pros:
• Upgraded version from broken laptop (bought said laptop in 2007)
• Greater mobility
• Increased computing power (over old laptop)
• Touch screen
• Pricing

Cons:
• No physical keyboard to do work from home
• Easier to break (moving it a lot more than a laptop)
• Inability to run work-related software (like VPN, for instance)

Based off that information, I feel that the best option may be to go with purchasing a new laptop. I would still be able to use a lot of my work software that I’m not sure would work on a tablet, and that’s important. On the other hand, I could just buy the tablet and drive into the office to do any other work, which wouldn’t be too much trouble for someone who lives only 10 minutes away. Looks like I still have some thinking to do…

This isn’t a typical blog post, but we’re not a typical hosting company.
Any suggestions?