Today, technology has taken society to another plateau; people can be tracked wherever they go from their cell phone, fleet tracking or car while ten years ago the world was adjusting to the fact that people could access information in the privacy of their own home from the World Wide Web. These devices work in real time and can provide an interested party with a wealth of information about the private daily activities of every person. Just as the introduction of the Internet to the workplace created new legal and policy issues, GPS tracking in the workplace implicates a new set of privacy concerns. We need discussion which takes the reader through the current technology and law on this issue. It will first offer background information on how GPS tracking device technology works and what legislation has arisen in response to that technology. It will then evaluate the different ways GPS is being used by addressing recent media stories involving employers monitoring the physical location of their employees. Idea assesses ways for employees to protect their privacy is needed, namely examining how GPS trackers can be turned off. The latter half of this report gives an overview on the current case law on this issue and identifies the balancing test that the courts have used to measure whether an employer has invaded an employee’s privacy. Finally, law review articles and journals on this issue are summarized to give the reader a different perspective and an idea on the general consensus of the legal community. While the introduction of GPS tracking devices technology into the workplace has yet to be addressed by the courts, there are guidelines to assessing the policy and legal implications of this type of technology
Choosing between Hosted PBX technology and deploying a PBX at the customer location often comes down to a “religious” decision between deploying technology in-house with all the control and security that it implies versus letting your provider host services in their network, while you get to focus on your core business competencies. Let’s face it, not everyone has the staff or technical expertise to manage their technology needs — these types of small businesses are the perfect candidates for hosted PBX services. These solutions allow the SMB to do what they do best, while the service provider handles their communications needs. At the end of the day, the goal of a Hosted PBX solution is to simplify communications for the SMB while providing some of the must-have features of the online world (e-mail integration, Web-based management). For that reason, among others, SMB owners are increasingly looking to hosted PBX services to fulfill their communications needs.
Among further cost considerations, deploying a Hosted PBX solution means there is no significant up-front commitment to installation and maintenance, nor is there the commitment to what can be a steep learning curve regarding how to deploy and use the system. That translates to lower capital outlays on staffing and support infrastructure. Good service providers will provide 24/7 customer service and will often proactively manage the solution, so that if a problem occurs, they can begin addressing the issue long before the customer even realizes there’s a problem.
Another benefit of the Hosted PBX has to do with disaster recovery. Nowadays, in a post-9/11, post-hurricane Katrina world, the need to prepare a business’ communications systems for unexpected disasters has become table stakes. However in a traditional, premise equipment-based scenario, the costs of disaster preparedness are high, when one factors in the necessary levels of redundancy, failover, multiple site networking, etc. A network-based hosted PBX solution affords a much less expensive alternative. If a major disaster were to hit, you could simply have all your calls redirected to a temporary telephone number (such as a cell phone), send your employees home or relocate your equipment to another IP-enabled facility. Since all the call processing and features are tied to servers that sit in the network, all the features are tied to the “cloud” ensuring availability in the event of a disaster.
Without a clean interactive “tool” for control of global temperatures, we are relying upon the unstable nature of our environment to continue to mend itself, regardless of our abusive actions. In addition to our own actions, history has shown that nature often has global extinction events. There are many natural generators of greenhouse gases.
If the methane permafrost melts, billions of people may die from reduced global agricultural harv Continue reading »
With all of the technology that is being continuously introduced and used, it would only seem logical in our quest for a green world to apply some of the renewable energy efforts to this spectrum. That is exactly what some scientists are looking into with their research on how nanotechnology can be used with lithium batteries.
According to Science News, a report that will be published in International Journal of Nanomanufacturin Continue reading »
The next 10 years promises to be an exciting period in the history of computers and networks as nanotechnology takes off to redefine a new level in the way computers are manufactured. It’s not entirely radical as the Lithographic principles behind the manufacturing process can be adopted for nanotech processes. What is revolutionary are the minute molecular-level sizes at which those circuit boards can now be made. This is the core of nanotech Continue reading »