First a little about our host:

Theta TTS helps manufacturers by providing product development support, prototyping, and metal stamping services.  The company has been delivering innovative and cost-effective solutions to customers for over 40 years.  In addition to precision tooling and stamping, Theta TTS provides a full range of value-added services to ensure that parts are designed, produced, assembled, and shipped…all to the highest standards of quality & service.

Theta TTS produces more than 80 million parts annually. Most are destined for manufacturers in the automotive and consumer electronics industries located in the United States, Mexico and Canada.

Founded in 1962, Theta Industries is a privately held company based in Barrie, Ontario, Canada.

                         The Theta TTS facility in Barrie, ON

The discussion was centred around:

• Video cards - dyna flow simulations - CATIA & MAIA & ASIC - soft hacking and hard hacking around video cards
• Bulldozer processors
• Blackberry outage - router issue overseas that backlogged everything
• Cell phones
• • iPhone 4 v. iPhone 4S
  • battery life with cell phones
  • long distance plans
  • roaming charges
• Rogers bought Atria
• YouTube and bandwidth issues
• Surfing times are increasing - both business/customer sites and personal
• Public facing terminal servers
• Security issues
• • Software
  • Malware
  • Hackers
  • Viruses - evolving viruses that are dynamic and constantly change through interaction with their environment
• Server 2008 issue - it is forever "phoning home"
• Open Source alternatives to Active Directory
• DNS resolving
• PLEX Online for ERP, time clocks, etc.
• VMware - don't go cheap on the hardware
• Double Take software - very good especially if you have multiple sites