Just a quick blog to say Happy New Year to everybody who follows my ramblings. I hope 2009 finds you healthy, happy, and profitable in your business. Forget the doom and gloom that the media seems to thrive upon. If your business is down, find a way to bring it up. Adapt, adjust, do what you have to. Find a way to distance yourself from your competition during these times. Invest in your business. Find marketing that works, and use it!
Do you know what Twitter is? If you don't, you may want to google it to find out. Dell announed that Twitter has made it over 1 million dollars in the last year and a half. Sure, that's nothing for Dell, but, every little bit helps, right?
Here's some stats on Internet searches from comScore, a company that "measures" the digital world.
Just a quick note to say Merry Christmas to all the readers. I hope your Christmas finds everyone safe. Please remember the reason for Christmas. We all know it's certainly not presents!
Rumor has it that Best Buy is having problems, and they are offering 4000 employees a buyout. The plan is voluntary. Benefits of this buyout include ony year of health care benefits, and 7 1/2 months of severance pay. Employees have to signup by Jan. 5th, 2009.
I am proud to announce that I will be hosting a daily Monday through Friday computer radio show starting sometime in late January. We have tentatively named the show the "Geek Free Radio Show".
Today, Microsoft released a patch out of band (OOB) or separate from its normal patch schedule. This is the second time Microsoft has released a patch in this fashion in as many months. This patch resolves a publicly known vulnerability called the "Zero Day Exploit" that affects Internet Explorer in various versions.
With Christmas shopping in full swing, do not be swayed by salespeople trying to sell you Microsoft Office Home and Student Edition for your business. You CANNOT legally use this version of Office in your business operations. If you want proof, the licensing terms are here.
Recently I blogged about the dramatic reduction in spam across the Internet, literally overnight. It seems that nothing lasts forever. The huge crime cartel responsible for the majority of spam sent across the Internet managed to resurrect itself after being shut down back in November. The post is copied below for your review. All the more reason to have a GOOD Antispam solution in place for your company. The money you spend for employees to sift through this junk would amaze you, and the cost of a decent antispam solution will immediately pay for itself, many times over in a very short period of time.
In the spirit of saving your company money, I ran across a blog indicating Hearst Publications is selling some of their magazine subscriptions at greatly reduced rates. Popular Mechanics is available for a one year subscription for 5 dollars. There are others there as well, including O magazine, Smart Money, and many more. To take advantage for yourself, or to give as a gift, follow this link: https://subscribe.hearstmags.com/subscribe/veranda/20180
I ran across an article on telephonation.com a forum for us techy types that dabble in computer phone systems. It had some interesting points to make about saving money during business travel, or any travel for that matter.
I ran across this article recently on some of the forums I subscribe to. It might be food for thought if you travel internationally.
So you want out of your Sprint contract and you don't want to pay the early termination fee? Well, I ran across a post on how to get out of your contract now without paying the fee. It seems Sprint has added a 99 cent administrative fee increase per line will give you the ammo you need to say goodbye.
Finally, A Faster USB! For the first time in over 8 years, Universal Serial Bus, or USB for short, is finally getting an upgrade. The non-profit group formed by various manufacturers to set the standard is scheduled to announce the new USB 3.0 standard.
According to some Internet news reports, McColo Corp., located in downton San Jose, California was shut down a few weeks ago when its two Internet backbone providers finally shut off their Internet backbone connection. McColo is a web hosting provider for many international organizations involved in spamming of everything from pornography to pharmaceuticals.
I ran across this article on one of the blogs I frequent. This study tracked specific cell phone models for a year. The results are, well, let's just say I'm glad I didn't get a Blackberry.
Two weeks ago I flew out to see a client in Nashville for a few days. Houston Intercontinental Airport and Continental Airlines instituted a new test program where you could have your boarding pass displayed on your browser enabled cell phone. I decided to give this a try and it worked like a charm!
Voice over Internet Protocol (VOIP) is definitely here to stay. If you haven't checked into it yet for your company, you should. It could possibly save you a ton of money. The quality is generally excellent now, and this is not your old voip in the beginning where the call quality was marginal at best. This is now a very mature product, and in fact, the long distance companies have been doing it behind the scenes for a long time. If you ever made a long distance phone call, odds are some part of the call was run over voip, with or without your knowledge.
