The Term Technician Tool Kit is in my opinion such a broad term that could cover many aspects of Electronic Tools today. There are many different things to consider when making a purchase of this magnitude, especially when it deals with Electronic Tools that you will most likely be using daily as part of your new profession. I will not go into great depth on all of the different Technician Tool Kits that you could purchase, instead I will touch briefly on some of the more popular Electronic and Technician Tool Kits used today.

The first Tool Kit I purchased was one that I personally used when attending school for Electronics. It came with a good 60 watt Soldering Iron and a Desoldering Tool. As an apprentice I think I probably went through twice as many Desoldering Tools than any other tool in the Tool Kit. Of course this Educational Tool Kit also included a student calculator, a professional Analog Multimeter, and other basics like pliers and cutters. It was moderately priced and had all of the essentials for the Electronic Student.

Once you have graduated from Electronic training wherever that may be, you will have most likely chosen your favorite part of the Electronic Field in which you want to make a profession of. At this point you will most likely find that although the Electronic Tools you used while studying Electronics were quite adequate at the time, they will not be enough to continue with in your new founded career as an Electronic Technician.

If you will be working in the field of Computer Technology you may find it necessary to purchase specialized tools for repairing computers. While in other instances you may not only be servicing computers, but you may also be involved with networking as well. In that case you may also want your Technician Tool Kit to includes test equipment like Lan Testers, Stud Finders and specialized Crimping and Networking Tools.

Telecommunications has become the industry of this century. The Technician Tool Kit for computers is certainly not going to contain all of the tools necessary to work on Telecom Equipment. In my opinion there are two choices when it comes to purchasing a Telecom Tool Kit and the choice you make should be based on whether you are Installing Telecom Equipment, or if you are repairing Telecom Equipment.

If your talents take you in the direction of installing Telecom Equipment then you need to start with a professional quality Butt Set. This will be the heart of your Telecom Tool Kit, so money spent here on a better quality Butt Set up front will save you time and money in the future. Along with a good Butt Set you should consider a professional grade Tone Generator as well. Both the Tone Generator and the Butt Set will be the heart of your Telecom Tool Kit, so don’t skimp here, remember your tools reflect to your customer the quality of the work you do, long before you ever complete the job. Your Telecom Tool Kit should also include a good set of screwdrivers, pliers, cutters and punch down tool that will have interchangeable blades.

Now on the other hand if you are considering repairing Telecommunication Equipment then you should seriously consider purchasing what is called a Communications Tool Kit. It includes a Butt Set, Tone Generator and Punch Down Tool, but will also include tools like Nut drivers, Precision Screwdriver Sets, Tweezers, Flashlight, Adjustable Wrenches and Electricians Scissors.

Service Technicians also require a specialized Tool Kit. Generally you will find included in these types of Tool Kits a professional grade Digital Multimeter, Security Screwdriver Set, Professional Grade Soldering Iron, Mini Vacuum Cleaner, Voltage Test Screwdrivers, Inspection Mirror and Wire Stripper.

Now needless to say these Technician Tool Kits contain many other Electronic Tools in them, but there are far too many to list here in this article. I have tried in this article to recommend the most important tools found in each type of Technician Tool Kit to help give you a better understanding of the differences between each one and the importance to take the time to choose the Technician Tool Kit that will best fit into the field of Electronics your talents happen to take you.

There is a new form of advertising growing with great speed in the current industry and it’s called the Digital Signage. This advertising form is rocking the digital advertising world with its great features which are awesome just like its name implies. In digital signing, the electronic data is handled and controlled from one administrative console running the digital signage software and is sent across to others terminals without having to change their physical location. In other words, the content and/or message that are going to be displayed on the sign are shown on every electronic screen. Now this screen can show the message in a scrolling message board or plasma or LCD display as it really doesn’t matter which ever display format has been used. All the control is with the administrative console which is nothing but a form of a computer or a digital device which handles all this work remotely.

When digital signage was first launched, it was very expensive but as time has moved on, more and more people are becoming aware of this new advertising medium which brought the cost down in an affordable criteria leaving open air for rapid expansion into the advertising market. As a matter of fact, Wal-Mart was amongst the first to take full advantage of this great technology in promoting its products. Wal-Mart has made sure they have television sets located at specific and target locations which are displaying signs in a well controlled manner to get the public to buy more. The messages and videos are always changing to something that would catch the eye. After Wal-Mart, Best Buy was the next customer that used this technology to promote there products and services. Best Buy has also setup large television sets which are displaying random ads, sign and messages to attract more users and are expected to increase there indoor and outdoor display capacity by more than 300% by next five years.

No matter what the customer is demanding, if you can fulfill their needs or solve there problems then you are giving them a digital signage solution. With minimal training, anyone would be able to handle the administrative console computer and can program the signs, messages and videos per requirement. The results so far are very encouraging as digital signage is being used by schools, church signs and mostly in government offices where relaying of information is a common thing using the IP video. With the new hardware in market, audio and video programs can now be stored or downloaded to a computer and can be modified to be played at a later stage via the administrative console.

Many companies are still taking there own time in judging the performance of this new technology as there is incomplete information on the Return on interest or ROI factor which matters to most of them. This reluctant behavior is not good for the business but at the same time drives the technology company to dig more and generate the data that the customer would want to look at before making a purchase as everyone loves a good amount of ROI.

Although it’s not really a new technology, Digital TV will seem like a new technology to many people when it becomes the only transmission format for over the air TV programming starting in February of 2009. Digital TV basically takes advantage of computer technology to transmit television programming by converting the images and sounds into computer data before transmission. Upon arrival at its destination, that computer data is then reassembled into the picture and sound that become the TV programming that you can watch. While this may sound like a rather round about way of getting TV programming to its viewers it actually has a lot of advantages over the older analog transmission format. One of the first things that any new viewer of digital TV will most likely notice is that it provides a very clear picture. That’s due to the ability of the digital tuner that receives the transmission to clean interference out of the signal before converting the raw data into images and sounds. This ability to clean up the interference will improve the picture even of TV that’s transmitted over cable. That’s because some interference creeps into TV thats transmitted through buried cables.

Another major benefit of digital TV is that it comes with an on screen program guide that allows viewers to see what’s on each of the channels that they have access to. These interactive TV listings include descriptions of each program so that viewers can always know what’s on without flipping to a random channel and trying to guess what they’re watching.

Another, less visible, benefit of digital TV is that it can be compressed in order to take up less bandwidth. This means that more channels can be transmitted over the same cable or range of over the air frequencies. While this isn’t that helpful for normal over the air TV and satellite transmissions, it’s extremely useful for cable TV providers to expand the number of channels that they offer without replacing cables. It’s also good for anyone who wants to deliver HDTV programming- regardless of the transmission medium- because of its bandwidth hogging nature.

There are a couple of inconveniences that anyone who takes advantage of over the air TV will be subjected to when the switch is made in 2009. One of them is the fact that when it comes to reception, digital TV is very much an all or nothing type of deal. That is, with digital TV you either experience a crystal clear picture or you don’t get any picture at all. That’s a big difference between it and analog TV which will degrade, but still be watchable well after it starts getting fuzzy. This reality alone will probably cause a resurgence in the popularity of big roof top TV antennas. Another inconvenience is caused by the fact that there are a lot of TV sets out there that don’t have the digital tuners necessary to decode the digital TV signal. This can obviously be remedied by buying a new TV, but there will also be digital receiver boxes available that will convert the digital signals to analog format before sending them to the TV set.

In all, the higher quality picture and the increased available bandwidth that will result from the digital TV transition will be good things, but only time will tell how well people react to this switch.

The following suggestions have probably been considered or attempted by others. However, the potential lies in your ability to capitalize on your clients not having the time to complete the tasks for themselves. In the case of the Digital Photo Album business, there are thousands of people who are very familiar with converting paper photos to digital files but only a handful really have the time to engage the process. Hence, potential clients! Next, be sure to seek business guidance! This can be hard at times considering the amount of books and tapes sold on the subject. Just remember to look for information from people who have a similar business model as yours.

(1.) Start a business converting family paper photo Albums to digital photo albums. If you have a computer and a scanner you’re ready to start. If you use a mac, get iPhoto from Apple.com. I start with this application because iPhoto has the most complete process I’ve seen with a very low learning curve. Plus after you have finished scanning in all the photos and cleaning them up, for an extra charge to your client if you decide to do so, you can layout a hard cover photo book in iPhoto, and send it directly to Apple to be printed and mailed to you or the client for very little expense. If you’re on a PC consider Picasa 2 by Google, online at google.com for FREE. Did I say it was for FREE? I give a tutorial overview of Picasa on my site at theanthonyreport.com in the free tutorials section. It works similar to iPhoto but without the service of going directly to a book format. Still, the learning curve is low and the software is free. Both of the above require minimal computer system configurations ($500 e-machine or $1,200 iMac ) and scanner/printers run about $80.00

2.) Start a business trouble-shooting and upgrading computer systems. Now this may seem high tech but it’s really not. When on service calls I only have my knowledge of the PC and the Mac, an external hard drive to backup the clients documents, (even if they said they have done so), some software to run some tests and a screw driver. Clients are literally 2 doors to your left or right, if they have a computer. In fact the easiest clients in the world to get are computer clients. People ALWAYS need help with their computers. Trust me, once you announce just to your family and friends that you now fix and upgrade computers, you’ll be busy from that moment on. Don’t know how to charge? Just look at the price list the “Geek Squad” has. They charge $200 to setup a home network, excluding equipment! It really only takes 30 minutes, if that, to setup a home network, so under bid them. I would charge a $100 and be on my way to my next stop in 20 minutes.

3.) Setup a business configuring and loading iPods with music and video. It never ceases to amaze me the amount of people with iPods that don’t use them or haven’t added music to them since their friend first put a few tracks on there for them. People WILL pay you to setup their iPod. What tools do you need? The know how and transportation to the client. Or, you can have them drop off their music, movies and their iPod to your home and charge a package fee or a per hour fee. When it comes to movies I have had people give me a couple of DVD’s and asked if I could get them onto their iPod. All you need is some DVD ripping software and a compressor software then transfer the files onto the iPod.

Where do you get your customers in your area? Advertise in the local online newspaper, post a flyer at Starbucks, tell a friend, who’ll tell a friend. Trust me, word will spread. Once again, its not that people don’t have the technology to do these things, they just usually don’t want to take the time to get them done.

4.) Start a business creating forms for businesses. I know a guy who delivered a product to a client without an invoice detailing the exact amount of items to be delivered. An argument followed between the two regarding the amount. The person delivering the product wanted to keep the client so they just conceeded and brought the client more product at a loss to himself. A friend of mine let him know that all he needed was an invoice with his business logo and information on it with a carbon copy sheet attached. He had no idea as to how to do the above so he asked my friend to create the documents and get copies. My friend did so at a cost. There are a great many people who need all types of forms which can be downloaded from the internet and customized to fit the clients needs. What’s required? For this you don’t even need your own computer, use theirs! Google the type of form, download it, copy the text from it, bring it into MS Word and adjust! Or, depending on how complex it is, download a free trial version of photoshop and alter it there. Don’t know how to use photoshop, I have a great tutorial on my site that’ll get you up and running in no time.

5.) Create a Cell Phone Media business. On a flight to Atlanta I had a lady sitting next to me who decided to pitch me on a multilevel marketing product. I wasn’t interested in the product, but I was impressed that she had the promo video on her Treo cell phone. I asked her if everyone in the company had the same setup, she said no, her son had compressed the video to go on the phone. Now imagine your company that can take a corporate promo video and format it for the top PDA smartphones available on the market today! Most major corporations only use 1 type of phone but there are smaller companies with sales people that have the Treo, the Blackberry, the iPhone and other smartphones. Most phones can run either an Mpeg 4 (.mp4) video clip or a 3G compressed video clip. Download a free or very inexpensive video compressor like Movavi, (www.movavi.com) and you’re ready to go.

In part 2 to this article I’ll give you 5 more businesses and I give you some more marketing ideas as to the promotion of your businesses using digital technology. In the meantime I sugggest you stop by theanthonyreport.com and familiarize yourself with some other technologies that are available and how to implement them to accomplish everyday tasks in life.