John Beagle

People, Places and Things

Technology Rental Interview with Raj Jain of ICC Enterprises

ICC Enterprises is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. Raj Jain is the Chief Executive Officer of a company that has been in the business to business technology rental industry since 1984. Raj thinks the the B-to-B computer technology rental is going to $1B in 5 years.

ICC & Rentacomputer have been partnering in rentals and service for over a decade.

Rentacomputer.com and ICC Enterprises are both members of the International Technology Rental Association and the Tech Army Organization.

Rentacomputer.com Celebrates 20 Years in the Computer Rental Business

Cincinnati, Oh -This year, Rentacomputer.com Celebrates 20 Years in the Computer Rental Business

From 1987 to 2007, Rent-A-Computer, renamed Rentacomputer.com, is a computer rental company that has evolved with the personal computer industry.

“In 1987, the first computer we rented was the IBM XT, a 8088 processor with 20mB Hard Drive. We upgraded it with a graphics card and green screen monitor. We also rented the IBM AT with a 80286 processor. Our first Apple product was a Mac Plus. And our first laser printer rental was the HP LJ Series II.” said Rose Morgan, co-founder with John Beagle.

In 1997, Rentacomputer.com was one of the first rental companies on the internet. Rent-A-Computer created its first website, Rentacomputer.com more than 10 years ago. In 1998, Rentacomputer.com helped co-found a computer rental industry trade association which became the National Computer Rental Association (NCRA). “Three years ago, the NCRA changed its name to the IT-RA, the International Technology Rental Association to better reflect the international membership of the organization as well as the focus toward technology rentals in general rather than computer rentals specifically.

It was the internet that fueled our growth. The internet provided a conduit which allowed us find local computer service talent in over 1000 cities worldwide. Everyday, Tech Travel Agents from Rentacomputer.com work with the best ‘local’ computer service and av equipment installers in the business.

Rentacomputer.com’s experience in the computer rental business combined with a vast global network of high quality technology installers ensures high quality installations every time, everywhere, this way with help from salesforce your business will be the best as possible.

Tech Travel Agents have more options that other ‘national’ rental companies can provide. For example, in all major cities we have multiple technology installer solutions. That means we always can get the technology you need installed for your corporate event on time, when you need it, at a price no one can match. All from one vendor! One Tech Travel Agent is the only contact you need for your technology rentals in 2007.

Featured products include 42” Plasma Rentals for Tradeshows, Conferences and Corporate events. Also wireless devices including wi-fi laptops and complete internet connected 802.11 wireless networks, projectors, and av multimedia equipment. New technologies available include the new dual core computer rentals in both desktop and laptop computer forms as well as the latest Apple Dual Core products too!

Rentacomputer.com has always been on the cutting edge with products for the best image projection at any corporate event. “You need to look as professional as the next guy. Better yet, you want to look better. That’s why we choose Rentacomputer.com for all our Projector and Plasma rentals,” Mark S. from a nationwide wireless company. (Name withheld for confidentiality)

“We are currently looking at adding the 103″ Plasma rental display to our inventory, just to stay one step ahead of the competition.” said Bill Schiering, VP Marketing, Rentacomputer.com.

In addition to plasma displays, Rentacomputer.com rents LCD 2000-6000 Lumen Projectors, complete sound systems and internet cafes for conventions, conferences and trade shows.

Today, Rentacomputer.com assists all sized companies, governments and educational facilities in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom with state-of-the-art computer and audio visual (AV) technology rentals.

Major manufactures represented in the rental product line include: Dell, IBM, Apple, HP, Hewlett Packard, Gateway, Sony, NEC, Toshiba, PDP, Samsung, Panasonic, Philips, GDV, Tatung, BenQ, Lavalier, LG Electronics, Hitachi, ViewSonic, Sharp, Lightware, Sony, Sampo, Proxima, and InFocus.Fast response to inquires from phone, fax or web requests and same day service is the key to the success of the computer rental firm. Quantities supported are from 1 to 500 computers, projectors, printers, network devices delivered as soon as today or tomorrow.

Rental periods are hourly, daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly and annually.

Contact a Tech Travel Agent at http://www.rentacomputer.com/ , email rentals@Rentacomputer.com or call toll free 800-736-8772. For more information on Tech Travel Agent Services visit http://www.techtravelagent.com/

List of Email Confidentiality Notices

Here is a list of email confidentiality notices I have used over the last 10 years.

The use of a confidentiality notice at the end of an e-mail is is a good idea. But only on emails that contain confidential or sensitive information. I have titled each of these disclaimers. Just cut and paste, to your signature tool, use title for easy reference. These are a bit redundant, but pick your favorite!

Title: Important Notice

IMPORTANT NOTICE: This email is confidential, may be legally privileged, and is for the intended recipient only. Access, disclosure, copying, distribution, or reliance on any of it by anyone else is prohibited and may be a criminal of offence. Please delete if obtained in error and email confirmation to the sender.

Title: Legal Disclaimer

DISCLAIMER: This e-mail contains proprietary information some of which may be legally privileged. It is for the intended recipient only. If an addressing or transmission error has misdirected this e-mail, please notify the author by replying to it. If you are not the intended recipient you may not use, disclose, distribute, copy, print or rely on this e-mail.

Title: Confidential Responsibility

The contents of this e-mail are confidential to the addressee and are intended solely for the recipients use. If you are not the addressee, you have received this e-mail in error. Any disclosure, copying, distribution or action taken in reliance on it is prohibited and may be unlawful. Please note that any opinions expressed in this e-mail are those of the author personally and not your business name who do not accept responsibility for the contents of the message.

Title: Confidential and Privileged

The information transmitted is intended only for the person or entity to which it is addressed and may contain confidential and/or privileged material. Any review, retransmission, dissemination or other use of, or taking of any action in reliance upon, this information by persons or entities other than the intended recipient is prohibited. If you receive this in error, please contact the sender and delete the material from any computer.

Title: Private and Confidential

This e-mail and any files transmitted with it are private and confidential and are solely for the use of the addressee. It may contain material which is legally privileged. If you are not the addressee or the person responsible for delivering to the addressee, be advised that you have received this e-mail in error and that any use of it is strictly prohibited.

Title: Strictly Confidential

This electronic transmission is strictly confidential and intended solely for the addressee. If you are not the intended addressee, you must not disclose, copy or take any action in reliance of this transmission. If you have received this transmission in error it would be helpful if you could notify Your company name as soon as possible.

Title: Disclaimer

DISCLAIMER: This e-mail contains proprietary information some of which may be legally privileged. It is for the intended recipient only. If an addressing or transmission error has misdirected this e-mail, please notify the author by replying to it. If you are not the intended recipient you may not use, disclose, distribute, copy, print or rely on this e-mail.

Title: Message not Secure

Internet communications are not secure and therefore the sender does not accept legal responsibility for the contents of this message. The information transmitted is intended only for the person or entity to which it is addressed and may contain confidential and/or privileged material. Any review, retransmission, dissemination or other use of, or taking of any action in reliance upon, this information by persons or entities other than the intended recipient is prohibited.

Title: Important and Confidential

IMPORTANT – this e-mail and the information that it contains may be confidential, legally privileged and protected by law. If you need an attorney check out the Criminal Defense Los Angeles California. Access by the intended recipient only is authorized. Any liability (in negligence or otherwise) arising from any third party acting, or refraining from acting, on any information contained in this e-mail is hereby excluded. If you are not the intended recipient, please notify the sender immediately and do not disclose the contents to any other person, use it for any purpose, or store or copy the information in any medium. Copyright in this e-mail and attachments created by us belongs to Your company name: the author also asserts the right to be identified as such and object to any misuse.

Title: Transmission Confidential

This e-mail and any files transmitted with it are private and confidential and are solely for the use of the addressee. It may contain material which is legally privileged. If you are not the addressee or the person responsible for delivering to the addressee, be advised that you have received this e-mail in error and that any use of it is strictly prohibited.

Title: Electronic Transmission

This electronic transmission is strictly confidential and intended solely for the addressee. If you are not the intended addressee, you must not disclose, copy or take any action in reliance of this transmission. If you have received this transmission in error it would be helpful if you could notify Your company name and contact as soon as possible.

Failed DOS Attack on Icann and US Defense Servers

Last night a Denial of Service or DOS attack considered the most significant attack since 2002 on the computers that direct traffic on the internet, failed to result in any significant loss of service to internet users.

DOS attacks attempt to overwhelm internet root servers with requests and information, which can slow down the network response. The attacks began last night and lasted approximately 12 hours.

The attack was believed to be from Asia. Thirteen internet ‘root’ servers that serve as the internet’s central address books were only slightly affected.

“It was a significant and concerted attack, but the average internet user would have barely noticed,” said Paul Levins, Icann Corporation VP of Corporate Affairs. Icann is the internet company that assigns IP names and numbers. “Ironically, the system gets stronger and better because of the attacks as we’re constantly upgrading the
technology,” Mr. Levins said.

The two servers targeted are operated by the US Defense Department and by Icann. The US homeland security department confirmed it was monitoring unusual volumes of internet traffic.

“There is no credible intelligence to suggest an imminent threat to the homeland or our computing systems at this time,” said an unnamed US defense department spokesperson said in a statement.

“… there was very little impact on the general public, the servers were able to hold up against the attacks. The internet in general was designed to even withstand a nuclear attack,” Zully Ramzan, a researcher at Symantec, told CNET News.com.

Sources: Paul Levins, Iccan; Mark Tran, Guardian Unlimited; Zully Ramzan, Symantec; Unnamed source at US Defense Department, CNET News

Gates to Jobs: I’m a PC and you’re an Idiot!

Bill Gates doesn’t see any humor in Apple’s “Mac vs. PC” ads. Gates came up short calling Jobs an idiot directly, but in a recent interview he expressed his opinions on the subject.

5 Points Expressed about the lunacy of Apple advertising strategy (from a recent Newsweek Interview):

Point 1″.. over 90 percent of the (population) use Windows PCs..”
Point 2: “.. [Windows Users don’t] think of themselves as dullards…”
Point 3 : “[Windows users] are not the kind of klutzes that somebody [Jobs] is trying to say they are”
Point 4: Gates also took shot at the Vista upgrade ad featuring PC getting major surgery. “Well, certainly we’ve done a better job letting you upgrade on the hardware than our competitors [read: Mac OS, Linux] have done. You can choose to buy a new machine, or you can choose to do an upgrade.”
Point 5: Vista has better security than the Mac Os. “Nowadays, security guys break the Mac every single day. Every single day, they come out with a total exploit, your Apple Mac machine can be taken over totally.”

Perhaps Window and Macs should play nice and advertise like Coke and Pepsi.

How Much for a Computer Rental? (Updated)

An even more updated post can be found here:

6 Factors that determine the Computer Rental Price

Computer Rental Pricing Information

Q: How much does it cost to rent a computer?
A: It depends on quantity, time, space, spec and supply.

Computer rental prices vary based on quantity, how long you need the equipment, where the equipment will be located, product specification and availability. The term ‘computer’ includes desktop, laptop, and mobile devices such as tablets and iPads.

Click here for a Computer Rental Quote

Quantity
Generally there is a lower price per computer rental unit on orders of 10 units or more. Additionally, rates break even lower with quantities over 100.

Length of Time – Daily, Weekly and Monthly Rates

Computer rental rates are based on daily, weekly and monthly rates. Industry professionals called ‘Tech Travel Agents‘ report that typical computer rental rates start at $79 per week* in most markets in the United States and Canada.

*Note: Based on 10 or more units and prices can vary 10% to 25%. Monthly rental rates averaged $129, but vary greatly based upon specification, availability and delivery location. (Source: 2012 Tech Army Supplier Data from over 100 independent suppliers)

Delivery Location
Office Building or Convention Center

Convention center deliveries are generally more expensive than delivering to a business address. Often business addresses have close-in parking and easy access to the delivery / installation room. A convention center complex requires a concerted effort from both the rental company and the company receiving the equipment at the convention center. Often convention center deliveries are more time consuming and costly to deliver, install and pickup at the end of the rental.

Specification

Typically a computer rental consists of an Intel Computer running the latest version of Windows. Higher computer specifications cost more to rent. For example: if you require advanced graphic cards, more ram, a different operating system or software installed, computer rental rates will increase.

Also Apple Macintosh Computers typically rent for more than Microsoft Windows-based computers. Click here for Apple Mac rental info.

Availability (Supply)

Rental Equipment is a Commodity – Supply and demand issues come into play in the computer rental business too. Supply can be affected by the number of suppliers and total computer rental units (known as a rental pool) in a given market area.

Having a Tech Travel Agent book your technology rental needs means you will always get the equipment you need. You are not dependent on one single equipment vendor. Tech Travel Agents obtain equipment via large technology pools from multiple sources across the US, Canada and Europe.


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About Tech Travel Agents: Tech Travel Agents from Rentacomputer.com coordinate both computer rentals and audio visual installations for corporate events worldwide. For the best pricing, reserve your computer equipment for your next corporate event or project early by contacting a Tech Travel Agent at 800-736-8772 or via email: TechTravelAgent@Rentacomputer.com

Is the US More Dangerous than IRAQ?

Over 61 thousand people have been murdered in the US since “Operation Iraqi Freedom” began.

You think its dangerous to be a US Soldier in Iraq? Consider this, the average number of US citizens murdered per year from 2002 to 2005 was 16149.25. Source: disastercenter.com

The United States Crime Index Rates Per 100,000 Inhabitants went from 1,887.2 in 1960 to 5,897.8 in 1991. By 1991 the crime rate was 313% the 1960 crime rate. In 1996 your risk of being a victim of a crime in the United States was 5.079%, and of a violent crime 0.634%.

Many murder victims were gang related. There are violent gangs in every major city in the US and innocent people are getting killed. Children are being shot while playing in their neighborhoods.

Now lets look at Iraq. Iraq has many war zone neigborhoods. But the death of American troops in IRAQ is less than 1000 per year. That’s just 6% of the murder rate in our us war zone neigborhoods. That means overall the US is more dangerous to American sons and daughters than IRAQ.

Funny how over the same time period (March 2003 to January 2007)* the murder of an estimated 61,905 American citizens gets overlooked, yet we see a regular news media ‘death count’ of our brave men and women we call to defend our nation. God Bless those 3000 troops and their families!

Domestic War Plan
Where’s the plan to defend our children at home in our neighborhood war zones? Where is the plan against gang violence and murder in the US? (headscratch)

*Source: warcronicle.com- March 19, 2003—Cruise-missile and bomb salvos hit Baghdad an hour after the deadline passes. Operation Iraqi Freedom begins.

Tiger Woods Tackling Video

Tiger Woods was harassed by a paid actor. Supposedly, Tiger was not in on the prank.

Tiger is on the Golf Tee with his driver, on the driving range. The actor sneaks up behind Tiger and spills the pyramid of practice balls all over the tee! Then he picks up Tigers golf clubs and starts running with them in his arms. Tiger sees this and takes to foot.

We see from this video, that Tiger woods has football skills too! He catches this guy and tackles him to the ground! He ends up rolling around on the ground, laughing with the actor. (Funny scale 2) 1 is best.

Here is the link to the Tiger Woods Tackling Video

Invitation to Post on the Tech Army Forums

Today, the Tech-Army announced the opening of a new discussion place for computer industry experts and novices alike.

Its called the Tech Army Forums
and its located here:
http://www.tech-army.org/forum/default.asp

Are you known as the computer expert among your friends and coworkers? Or worse yet, to they call you a geek? Do you attend geek conferences? If so, you might be what we need over at the Tech Army Forums.

The Tech Army Forums is the place to discuss Microsoft Vista, Router Protocols, Spam, Web programming code, all sorts of computer technology tips and information.

Calling all computer experts who want to work in the computer industry, there’s a new opportunity in tech land and its not the Geek Squad! Its the Tech Army!

We need technology experts to share their experiences with us regarding products and services for the future and past. If you are a technology expert or you work for a technology company, please consider joining the Tech-Army Organization and posting on the Tech Army Forums.

The Tech Army Vision for Tech Army Forums
It’s a world where we connect users and technicians to help the advancement of our technological society. (Well, that’s what its supposed to be and we hope it will be).

Tech Army Thanks the Men and Women in Uniform
The Tech Army Organization would like to thank those men and women in uniform who help keep us safe from warring terrorists. The Tech Army Organization welcomes engineers, technicians, and other technology experts who also support our right to defend, protect and keep prosper.

Together we, the Tech Army, will combat bad service in the computer industry. And win the technology war with information.