The Lounge
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Messy Desk Equals Orderly Mind
My Mother, nearly every boss I've ever had, and my wife all agree on this. Having a clean neat desk is the key to a productive work environment. Finally some important people who take my side; Eric Abrahamson and David H. Freedman have recently come out with a book titled "A Perfect Mess," which claims to reveal the hidden benefits of being unorganized and cluttered.
In their book they bring to light the things I've been saying for years: messy desks aren't a sign of disorganization just other-organization! Just as different people have different ways of writing so to do they have different ways or organizing. "Roughly speaking, a system is messy if its elements are scattered, mixed up or varied due to some measure of randomness," but that's only according to another's point of view, the book contends.
The book says a Bradford, Pennsylvania police chief actually was fired for not having a neat desk. "Fortunately for the world," the book states, "Albert Einstein did not work for... the city of Bradford. Einstein's desk at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, NJ, was maintained by all personal and photographic accounts, in stupendous disarray."
The book goes on to say that messiness tends to increase sharply with increased education, salary and experience.
"Mess isn't necessarily the absence of order," claim the authors. "A messy desk can be a highly effective prioritizing and accessing system. In general, on a messy desk, the more important, urgent work tends to stay close by and near the top of the clutter, while the safely ignorable stuff tends to get buried to the bottom or near the back, which makes perfect sense. The various piles on a messy desk can represent a surprisingly sophisticated informal filing system that offer far more efficiency and flexibility than a filing cabinet could possibly provide."
Planning out and having your desk completely organized according to other's ideals not only reduces a person's efficiency but takes away the opportunity for serendipity to spark creativity.
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B2B Spotlight
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 My Backup Buddy
Name: Scott Bell
Occupation: Owner of My Backup Buddy
How do your company's services benefit the general public?
The My Backup Buddy Service provides added personal safety for our member's, and in turn for less than honorable people if they believe an intended target victim may use this service they may simply move on to an easier target.
Greatest achievement to date?
The development of the system and method for the My Backup Buddy service.
Character trait you most admire?
Anyone who can live life to it's fullest
When are you the most productive?
Late mornings or late evenings
When are you the most bored?
If you're bored, you're probably a boring person
How do you define success?
The ability (within reason) to do what you like, when you like.
Are you involved in, or have you had any experiences/extra activities that you would recommend to our clients?
Everyone should know how to dance, there's nothing like the feeling even for just a few minutes during a song, to be on a dance floor completely transported from our everyday lives.
From your experience/expertise, do you have any suggestions for small to medium sized business owners just starting out?
Anything can be done, if not always by you, simply ask then by who?
If you were granted one wish, what would it be?
That a missing person report never have to be filed.
For more information about Scott Bell or My Backup Buddy please visit www.mybackupbuddy.com |
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The Tech Report
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Is Your Website Vulnerable To
Malicious Code
- by mat nayie It's a jungle out there on the net, but by using these few simple tricks and traps, anybody can protect themselves from the virtual beasts that lurk there, waiting to attack the unwary.
Online security is not just for big corporations. It's true that they stand to lose more, in terms of value, than you or I, but they have sufficient reserves to be able to weather the storm, whereas the average small business or man on the street is in a much more precarious position.
Using your credit or debit card online is no longer as dangerous as it once was, but there are other ways in which use of your computer can be made difficult, even impossible. Viruses are just the tip of the iceberg. There are so many different ways in which your computer can be preyed on whilst you are online, and even after you have disconnected. Apart from worms, viruses, trojans, data miners, and keystroke loggers, there is spyware, adware and who knows what else out there. All of them trying to take advantage of you and/or your computer.
These products have many purposes. Very few of them are purely vindictive or disruptive.For example, many viruses which install themselves onto a computer do it no harm at all. Instead, they use the email program running on the computer to send out spam, starting with everyone in the computer's address book. And although everybody I know deletes spam immediately, presumably there must be some sales, or this type of virus would be of no value to the author.
It is important to be as secure as you can, because in extreme cases, your very identity can be stolen, and used in ways that will disadvantage you for a long time to come. And though this may be quite rare, there are many viruses or trojans which disrupt the data you have on your computer, in some cases causing so much damage that you have to reformat the disk and start again - which is fine if you have kept backups (as we have all been taught to do), but how many of us really do back our data up? We know we should do this, but when was the last time you made a complete copy of all your data?
This sort of attack tends to be at the amateur end of the scale. But if you have
children who surf the net, or you correspond with someone who has kids who surf, you are at risk. The areas where they surf are some of the most likely sources of this type of virus. But any of us can fall victim just by a single moment of inattention when checking through our emails.
So how can you protect yourself from all these different threats?
- Get yourself a firewall. Sysoft offer a free personal firewall that is very good, and makes your computer invisible to many types of attack - the best defense possible.
- If you haven't got one already, install a virus-checker, such as AVG, which is available for free download and set it to start up whenever you turn on your computer.
- Schedule a daily or weekly update for your virus checker at a time when you are usually online, but not using the computer for anything requiring 100% of its resources.
- Get a copy of Ad-Aware, available for free download, and run it once a week.
- Download and install a free copy of Spyware Blaster This will load up when you start up your computer and sit in the background, preventing access to your private data by thousands of different types of spyware. Do make sure it is regularly updated, though, or you may fall foul of a new attacker.
- Run Spybot Search and Destroy once a week to check for anything missed by your other lines of defense.
- Even though you may have installed all these pieces of software, keep them up to date and use them religiously, it is still vital to take care with incoming emails. If you get an email which is very short and doesn't 'sound' like the person it is supposed to be from, with an attachment, DO NOT open it. Delete it straight away. If there is any doubt, still delete it, but you could email your friend and just check with them that they didn't send you anything. It is far better to be safe, and cause a tiny bit of inconvenience, than to end up trashing your hard disk.
- When making a payment online, make sure the connection is secure. Secure sites start with https:// instead of the usual http://. On IE, a yellow lock symbol will appear in the bottom right hand corner of the screen in the status bar.
- Don't make payments on public computers, such as at internet cafes, libraries and so on. You don't know how secure these are, they are very likely to be infected by keystroke recording viruses.
- In addition, if logging onto an Instant Messenger such as Yahoo or MSN on a public computer, make sure the box to remember the password is UNCHECKED, or someone could steal your identity and send offensive material to your buddies (this happened to a friend of mine).
- Finally, if it is practical, change your password regularly. However, do not fall into the trap of changing it so frequently that you cannot remember it and have to write it down or put it in a data file. That would be a lot less secure than keeping to the same password you've always had.
(To make it easy for you, I have collected links to all the above-mentioned security programs http://www.informationzone.biz/security.html)
Using these tools, you can protect yourself from almost any malicious program, and if you do pick up a virus or piece of spyware, for example, you will catch it quickly, before it can do irrecoverable damage.
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Max Media
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 Your Marketing Dollars
Whether you are just starting your business or have an established presence in the marketplace, you undoubtedly have consumed time wondering how to spend your advertising dollars wisely. You want the highest possible return on advertising investments, so how do you reach the largest audience without going broke? Advertising options are as limitless as your imagination. Websites, Yellow Pages, television ads, brochures… even standing on the corner in a purple dinosaur costume handing out flyers is a method of advertising! But which method will reach the largest audience and drive the most customers into your business?
Know Your Customer
How do your customers search for your service or commodity? In recent years the answer has increasingly become “the Internet”. A Webtivity client recently said, “When people asked me for my web address and I told them I didn't have one they looked at me as though I didn't have a legitimate business.” It is no accident that “googled” has become an accepted verb in the American lexicon. If someone searches for your business online, can they find you?
Yellow Pages vs. Website
Think about the thousands of dollars you have spent (or will spend) on a Yellow Pages ad. Do you advertise in one directory or multiple directories? How much information can you fit into that ad? Can you convey the personality of your business with that ad? A website is a living, breathing advertisement that can give a worldwide audience all the information they need to make a decision and contact your business. Now that's return on investment!
I Have a Website, Now What?
Once you have a professionally developed website the job isn't over! Have your website audited to be sure it is search engine friendly and see how you rank with the competition. Don't forget to refresh your image! What is generally accepted website design today will be out of date next year. If your website looks stale and outdated, that is the image you are conveying to potential customers.
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Webtivity Designs Does Print Work:
Is your business card charismatic?
Does it stand out from all the rest?
Is the stock thick enough so it feels good in your client's hand?
Are you taking advantage of both sides of your business card?
No?? Contact Webtivity Designs for assistance and high quality print design.
Business Cards
Banner Ads
Brochures
Post Cards
Let us help your card jump out of the Fish bowl at the Chamber Functions!
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ITS HAPPENED TO EVERYONE
Have you ever wanted to locate a Fine Dining establishment in your area and had an aggravating time doing so? You could try the Yellow Pages but unless you know the specific name of the restaurant you are going to be inundated with row after row of meaningless listings. Will you be told how good the food actually is? Do the entrees look better than they taste? Will your portions be enough to fill you up, and how much will you end up spending by the end of the evening? Will you be greeted by an
abrupt greeter who doesn't care they lost the reservation to your anniversary dinner?
These are all very important questions but ones which are never answered in the Yellow Pages.
Finally a viable solution for your dining search needs. In December of 2007, Webtivity Designs will proudly launch 2 very informative sites including:
EatingOutFlorida.com FineDiningFlorida.com
EatingOutFlorida.com will be an all inclusive guide to all area establishments from Asian to Italian; from Applebees to Zios. FineDiningFlorida.com will take that same concept to another level concentrating on the fine dining establishments in the area. This is not a new concept. There are currently websites available which do provide this information. Some are better than others but we have found none which provide all the necessary information most diners demand and who do so in an easy way. This is where the “3 Rules Method” comes into play, and those who are clients of Webtivity Designs have heard us preach this again and again.
The 3 Rules Method that any users should have to click no more than three times to choose the category they are looking for, then the particular item and then the details page. By the time you get to that Details page you will know the locations, the dress code, the method of payments accepted, the cuisine of course, the hours, the signature dish, if wine/liquor and beers are served are reservations required all with three clicks of the mouse.
Fine Dining Florida and Eating Out Florida … Look for them LIVE December 2007.
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the funny
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The Lounge:
Human to Human design by Sharon Lee
B2B Spotlight:
Steve Nelson of Taylor Rental
The Tech Report:
The Mobile Web and Beyond by Cindy Krum
Max Media:
Decisions your Business needs to make about your Web Site Design!
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