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.

Wikipedia states that crowdsourcing is “the practice of obtaining needed services, ideas, or content by soliciting contributions from a large group of people, and especially from an online community, rather than from traditional employees or suppliers.” While that is a spot on definition, it is not actually “Wikipedia’s “definition.  Wikipedia is just that – a crowdsourcing site. Where you, me, and anyone else can set up an account and submit anything we want, to any article.

I could go on right now and submit that Donald Trump was voted Vogue Magazine’s Sexiest Celebrity of 2013. Or that the Boston Red Sox have the most World Series titles in MLB history. Or, that there have been multiple unicorn sightings just north of Reno, Nevada in the past decade.

The Wikipedia definition of crowdsourcing was actually cited from the Merriam-Webster Dictionary. Why? Because the majority of the people who take part on this crowdsourcing site said it was.  It is widely accepted that information about a subject coming from 100 people will usually be more thorough, honest and accurate, than when the information is coming from one or two people.

This type of “power of the people” has not only been seen successful on the online encyclopedia, Wikipedia, but on other sites where “crowdfunding” is the name of the game. People can now support music, technology, art, film, games, photography, or really anything depending on what they want to see or have succeed in the future.

Investors in businesses, major record labels, film studios, and large corporations shell out tons of cash to create new products and projects. But thousands of startups, independent musicians, and other entities try to get their foot in the door to their industry, and struggle to afford what they need in order to make their idea work.

Sites like Kickstarter, Indiegogo, and Crowdfunder are all outlets for people with big ideas, to get the attention of thousands of people who may just want to support them both creatively and financially.

Recently a musician by the name of Kevin Devine was able to fund his project (two albums: one acoustic, and one with his band. “The Goddamn Band”… how can you not support that?) where he raised over $100,000 from over 1,000 people.

Backers could pledge from $1 to $4,000 where each interval of cash would get the pledger a “gift” back. From an acoustic demo of a song, to a “private 60-minute acoustic show at your house, all travel and accommodation included – you pick the setlist.”

Mr. Devine says himself on Kickstarter, “I had a thought-provoking conversation with a friend…about all the pitfalls and dangers of crowd-sourcing/funding ‘the arts,’” He says. “It’s a really easy thing to do badly, or cheesily, or in a way that can feel … compromised, hacky, undignified. “ For an artist, it’s hard to say. It can seem tacky, but over 1,000 fans knew what he was capable of, and he is now fully funded and recording his albums. Independently, Kevin Devine is able to write and record his own piece of art for the fans of his music.

With funding like this comes freedom. No big-wigs looking over your shoulder telling you what to change. The projects and products come straight from the inventors, with the engagement and the help of the backers.

Right now, you can go to Kickstarter and fund projects like a solar panel that can power devices from smartphones to laptops, handmade leather goods, or a 3D printer (almost funded $3,000,000).  You can pick and choose what you support, which products you want, and together the world can begin causing change in areas they want to succeed.

So what do you think? Will sites like Kickstarter push a company to be the next Apple? Will Kevin Devine be the next George Micheal? A boy can dream…

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.

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.

Just a friendly update from the social side of TurnKey Internet: Yahoo! has acquired Tumblr! If you’re unfamiliar with either, wake up. Just kidding (kind of). Yahoo! is an Internet corporation best known for its web portal and search engine, and Tumblr is a multimedia microblogging and social networking site.

These days, alliances and acquisitions are forming between prominent Internet sites faster than you can say “prominent Internet sites”. We’ve mentioned a few of them on the TurnKey blog before, like in my tirade about Instagram’s policy changes following Facebook’s billion-dollar buy-out, for example. I still think that was so uncool, but I’ll leave it at that… for today.

Speaking of billions of dollars, Yahoo! purchased Tumblr for $1.1 billion… in cash! I wonder which lucky Yahoo! employee was given the task of making that truckload of bills rain all over the Tumblr team. That probably didn’t happen, but maybe it did, and this is my article.

To give you a snapshot of the information that I’ve dug up in my webscapades (did you like that?), apparently Tumblr will remain its own entity, as a separate business, independently-owned and operated. The deal is being spoken of in an almost partner-like manner, with mentioned plans of integrating search functions into the microblog as a means to surf its content more easily.

I think it was pretty smart of Yahoo! to shell out the big bucks and scoop up Tumblr. Let’s just hope they keep their very public promise to “not screw it up”. I wonder what that was a reference to…

Anyway, I’ll keep this article short and sweet, and leave you with one final bit of cliff-hanging wisdom: When are we going to start mashing up company names like we do with celebrity couples these days? Facebingagram, AndroogleTube, Twittine… and now Yahumblr? How catchy! We’re wasting so much of our valuable time with all of these unnecessary letters and syllables.

Now, you may remember my first blog post here at TurnKey. Remember–the one about Twitter’s video app, “Vine”?

Back in February?

Hello?

Well, regardless of if you read it or not, let me give you a little run-down on what it was all about!

Twitter acquired the company “Vine” back in October of 2012, and released it to the public this January as an iOS app. Vine gives users a “stop-and-go” way to record whatever they want, and to compose it into a six-second video.

For example, this one, of a cute dog.

Or, similarly, this one, of Busta Rhymes and crew.

Vine has quickly caught the attention of Twitter users all around the world, and just last month it was the most downloaded free app in Apple’s App Store. Judges at the Tribeca Film Festival even asked people for Vine entries this year, and said they were “impressed with the creativity at play when it came to the submissions.”

In a response to Twitter’s acquisition of Vine, YouTube has created an app called “YouTube Capture”. Now, while Twitter focuses on the brevity of a six second Vine, YouTube is sticking to its “post what you want” approach. This app makes it easy and hassle-free for users to record videos on their mobile phones, and upload them straight to YouTube.

With YouTube Capture, you simply press a button and the video begins to record. It continues to record until the button is pressed again, then the video is over. Next, you are asked to enter a title, then given options to color correct, stabilize, or trim the video, and even to add a “soundtrack” to it. The soundtracks are pre-made, ringtone-type music clips, which I thought was an interesting idea. Lastly, you press “done”, and the video is uploaded directly to your YouTube account.

So, who do I think wins the Video-App-Super-Bowl-World-Series-Stanley-Cup-Green-Jacket-Gold-Medal-Championship Award?!

I give it to Vine, simply because of its originality and the fact that it’s so easily shared among friends on Twitter. Vine has limited functions, but with a six-second video you’re just trying to get to the point. Vine videos can also leave a lot of room for creativity, like in this one, for example.

YouTube’s app is incredibly easy to use, and very handy if you want to make simple videos of day-to-day things, like a visit to the zoo, or your cat in water. The features that YouTube Capture provide are pretty nifty, but it lacks any major editing tools and the app itself is a lot less interactive, in my opinion. While it depends on the purpose of your video, both apps are great in their own way, but Vine just has that easy-to-use, interactive element. Sorry YouTube, but you are about 100 years old in technology years, and while you are a classic, my friends need to see my life played out in 6 seconds at a time!

Hey there, everybody who has been playing our weekly Disaster Recovery Trivia Challenge! Hey, also, everybody who should be! If you’re confused, you should read this article, explaining what the Disaster Recovery Trivia Challenge is. Trust us, it’s not something you’ll want to miss out on. Especially if you like T-shirts and/or United States Dollars in quantities of one hundred.

Now that you’re up to speed and that we’ve gotten the more unfortunate news out of the way, we can proceed to the purpose of this article.

Our Disaster Recovery Trivia Challenge has been such a success, everyone! This is a fact that we are beyond psyched about. However, it’s outgrowing its home on our social sites faster than you can say “Disaster Recovery Trivia Challenge”, so we decided it’s time to relocate it to somewhere it has a little more room to breathe… like our blog, for example.

The game is the same in all other aspects; this is just a relocation of the weekly facts and answer reveals. You can still feel free to chat away on social media, since we–quite obviously–love to.

Here’s a round-up of what has happened so far:

And the winner is… BILL Y.!

And the winner is… DAVID W.!

And the winner is… NICK J.!

And the winner is… ALEX E.!

And the winner is… Russell G.!

And the winner is… Mike H.!

And the winner is… DARREN C.!

And the winner is… Empty Mirror Books!

Now that we are up to speed, here is this week’s TRUE or FALSE question:

So what do you think? Is it TRUE or FALSE? Tell us, and you could win a T-shirt and a shot at the grand prize of $100! You can post your guess here, or continue the conversation on our Facebook and Twitter pages. We don’t care how, we just want to give away T-shirts! Check back here later in the week to see if you’re our new winner! GOOD LUCK!

Even though the Disaster Recovery Trivia Challenge has a new home, you should still follow our social sites. We’re constantly on the look-out for share-worthy content on a vast array of super-cool topics–everything from hosting to gadgets to sustainability–and we’d love to hear your voice in the crowd.

Big news, everyone! Starting Monday, February 25th, 2013–also known as next Monday–we will be holding a contest on our social sites!

After the panic that both Hurricane Sandy and Winter Storm Nemo brought about, it has become clear to us that far too many people are uninformed about the importance of being prepared. Back up your data, guys! Prepare for disaster! It’s so, so imperative in running a business successfully, and ensuring its continuity. You wouldn’t drive a car without insurance, would you? Maybe you would, how would I know? But if you do, cut it out.

With that being said, we decided to take action. Introducing: The Disaster Recovery Trivia Challenge!

HOW TO PLAY:

–   Every Monday morning, stop by our Facebook and/or Twitter page(s). There, among the piles of awesomeness, you’ll find a fact about disaster recovery, or businesses’ lack thereof.

–   Read the fact, and decide if you think it’s “True” or “False”.

–   Once you’ve made up your mind, tell us what you think! You can submit your guess on Facebook in the comment section of the fact post, or tweet it to us on Twitter. Luckily, both “True” AND “False” are 140 characters or less—for all you little blue birdies out there. Phew!

Casting your guess (when and IF—that’s a big “if”, see?—you “like” us on Facebook or “follow” us on Twitter…or both, if you just really like hanging out with us) automatically earns you an entry to win— DRUM-ROLL, PLEASE…

Oooooohhh…

Aaaaaaahhh…

 *

Wooooowww…

—A free shirt! As a proud owner of one of these babies and a lover of all items acquired through winning giveaways, I can confidently tell you that you shouldn’t sit this one out.

At the end of every week, also known as Friday, we will not only be revealing the answer, but choosing a winner at random. Did you see I said “every week”? That means that with every new fact that we present, comes another opportunity for you to win. So, if you play and aren’t selected, bet your bottom dollar that the sun will come out next week.

We have 10 disaster recovery facts to talk to you about, so that means there are 10 chances to win. That also means that there will be 10 winners of TurnKey finery when all is said and done. However, we want to have a grand-prize winner, because, well… why not? At the end of this 10-week period, when we’re done making it rain T-shirts on you all, we will draw one grand-prize winner from the pool of weekly winners. That one, final, lucky winner will receive $100! Don’t spend it all in one place! Unless you’re spending it at TurnKey Internet, that is.

So what do you think? Will you play along? At the very least, check in on Fridays for some valuable information that just might end up saving you.

* Recognize this image, anyone? This T-shirt is the answer to this week’s  “Guess that photo” puzzle! For those of you who haven’t heard yet, “Guess that Photo” is another game we play on our social sites! Tune in every week for a new picture, and see if you can guess what it is.

“Let’s Make a Deal!” was a terrific run, wouldn’t you agree? We had a ton of fun deal-making and prize-awarding, through the original promotion and then again with its revival. However, like all good things, “Let’s Make a Deal!” must, too, come to an end. If you find yourself in tears, we understand. Take a moment. We’ll wait…

We would like to extend a final, congratulatory shout-out to our winners of “The Deal of a Lifetime” (Jesse C., Steven S., Danny F., Hendra S., and Adam B.), and an enormous “Thank you!” to everyone who entered. This will not be the last TurnKey Internet giveaway of its kind—mark my words!

With that being said, we have something brand new to share with you! Come on; would you really expect anything less from us? At this point, we hope you know as well as we do that we would be bored to tears without some kind of event going on.

Without further ado, we would like to introduce… The Truckload Sale!

An 18-wheeler just arrived at the TurnKey Internet data center, bursting at the seams with a medley of 8 GB, 16 GB, and 32 GB Intel E3 dedicated servers. To celebrate the arrival of this glorious mountain of technology, we are packing in the savings and marking every single one of them 40% off! All you have to do is enter the coupon E3TRUCK at check-out. That’s it! We’re all about making things easier.

E3’s are what’s hot right now, and they are being snatched up left and right. Don’t miss your chance to get in on this discount, because—trust us!—it won’t last long! Check out the Truckload Sale > 

Also… Yes, there is an “also”. Have you noticed there’s almost always an “also”? The E3 sale isn’t the only new thing starting up at TurnKey Internet this week. Since the truck arrived carrying only servers, we realized that we needed to show our other products and services some love as well. Naturally, we decided to offer savings on… well, everything. We just feel like a new year is started best when there’s a deal involved, you know? Especially when it’s a TurnKey deal, because those are our very favorite kinds of deals. So, see for yourself! Whether you’re looking for a reseller package or a virtual private server or anything in between, with this sale (and the coupon code TK2013), we know you’ll be able to kick off 2013 correctly.

So, are you as excited as we are? We hope so! But save some room for more, and keep an eye on our Facebook and Twitter pages. We may or may not have another contest all cooked up and coming your way in the VERY near future.

Pssttt… I’ll have it be known that by “may or may not” I mean “definitely do without question”, but that’s between you and me…