If you talk to any foodsmiths, you will know that they love the idea of tech integration into food preparation.  The Belkin Chef Stand and Stylus is a dream for those wanting instant access to recipes and the like.

As if the iPad needed more applications.  Duh.  The idea is a simple one, give the iPad an easy stand and add a hands free stylus.  You don’t want to touch your screen when you have been hand mixing ground beef!  The Belkin Chef Stand and Stylus sells for $40.  Nothing glitzy, just a functional product.

Bomgar, yeah it has a strange name for a product.  But that’s because it is named for its founder, Joel Bomgar.  Bomgar provides support appliances that a support technician would drool over.  It’s almost like they took a support techs dream list and came out with this product.  Seriously – it’s that fun to use.

I’ve been using a Bomgar support appliance for about 2 years now.  Previously, I had used a variety of remote desktop tools and other things to cobble together a useful suite.  When you are doing tech work, you get creative.

Let me start by saying that this is an unsponsored, unaffiliated product highlight.  I am promoting this product because I believe in it and what it can do for you.  So, why do I like it?  Well, for starters, it’s intuitive.  Yes, it’s an appliance that runs on your network.  You can web enable that appliance and expose it to the internet.  Or, you can simply run it on your LAN.  It’s your choice.

Now, simply create some user accounts and you are almost in business.  Those users can be in the form of support personnel, etc.  They log into their console and they are now available to make support connections.  You can take control of a user’s computer in less than a minute.  They click, are asked to run a very small install file, and you can grab control and get to work.  Once you are done with the support session, you simply disconnect and the program is uninstalled.  It’s that easy – seriously.

When you are in a support session, you have most of the valuable information and shortcuts right at your finger tips.  You can quickly see all the useful system information.  And you can get to most control panel items through a drop down.  Also, restarting into safe mode is just a matter of selecting an icon.  Once in safe mode, Bomgar reestablishes the connection and you are off and working again.  Can you say cool?

Oh, and did I mention that you can use Bomgar with Mac, Linux, Windows, Blackberrys, and Windows Mobile?  I have used the representative console on linux and windows machines.  It’s really hard to list all the features and functionality.  And they are constantly updating the software to improve it and include more functionality.  It’s killer.

And the pricing is super reasonable.  I was shocked when I initially got pricing information.  Again, you owe it to yourself and your organization to look into this appliance.  It’s not for everyone, but man -it’s really really good.  Oh, you can also do presentations on it.

Here’s a video on some of the functionality: