Bruce’s Business Tips
Are you handing a criminal the keys to your network? Over the last couple years, network security has become more and more important. We have made tremendous strides when it comes to eliminating SPAM and reducing viruses. We have tools that constantly scan your computer for viruses and we even manually scan your computers on Thursdays (if you are a Fixed IT customer). So you are safe, right? Wrong.
Lately we have seen a number of traps set for unsuspecting users. These traps trick the user into inadvertently handing over the keys to your network. What’s worse is that most of the time the user doesn’t even know it happened. It’s like having your wallet stolen on a busy subway and not even knowing you were on the subway to begin with.
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Pop quiz! How many password-protected accounts do you have? How many passwords on that list are unique?
It’s very likely that you re-use your password because you thought of a “good one” that is both strong and easy to remember. A strong password is great step toward protecting your account data, but if you use the same one for everything… Well, then you’ve actually taken a great step backwards. Would you use the same physical key for every building you access? What if you lost it? Or someone stole it? The potential risks are huge!
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In today’s crazy-busy world, who doesn’t want to cram more “done” into their day? We’ve got three really simple things you can do to get more work done for the hours you’re putting in.
- Use dual monitors. According to a University of Utah study, you can increase your efficiency by 25% just by adding a second monitor. Performance measures included task time, editing time, number of edits completed, number of errors made, as well as usability measures evaluating effectiveness, comfort, learning ease, time to productivity, quickness of recovery from mistakes, ease of task tracking, ability to maintain task focus, and ease of movement among sources. All of these factors combined show truly increased productivity.
- Block social media sites and/or other non-work related content online. THIS one won’t be popular for a lot of people, but if you want to get more done, then take the distractions out of your day. Of course if your job is “social media director” for your company, this doesn’t apply; for all the other workers in your office who don’t NEED to go on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube to do their job, this will remove the temptation to “snack” on social media sites throughout the day, which add up to hours wasted on entertainment surfing. Content filtering software can easily manage which sites you can and cannot go online to view, also keeping employees from gambling, searching for jobs, reading the news or visiting sex sites.
- Set up remote access. It’s incredibly easy to access files, e-mail and programs from home (or while on the road) these days using cloud technologies or other remote access applications. Not only does this allow people to keep working when forced to stay home with sick kids or to wait for the plumber to show up, but employees would also put in several more hours of work on their own initiative if they could easily jump on their home PC and put in a few hours.
Decker got her undergrad degree in Biological Anthropology, so Human Evolution is her interest. DNA tests can give you incredible new details about your unique ethnic origins and there are 2 good places to purchase a DNA kit this season 1) Ancestry.com for $99 and 2) The Genographic Project Participation and DNA Ancestry Kit from National Geographic for $159.95
~Decker Chaney
Tim loves his wireless Jawbone Jambox:Bluetooth speaker that we are featuring it on our blog yet again. This time he wants you to know that not only is it great for music but it’s also an awesome speakerphone. Price on Amazon is $137.28
~Timothy Neiman
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MacIntosh computer users have long enjoyed relative freedom from hacker attacks. However, researchers at Symantec Corporation say online criminals are now setting their sites on Mac users.
There is a belief amongst users that Macs are essentially more secure than PCs because they are built better, but security experts would argue differently. They believe that the Mac is actually no more secure than a PC.
In fact, they note that the relatively low number of viruses, exploits and other cyber attacks directed at Mac users is due to Apple’s relatively small market share of the computer market.
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The Yellow Pages are dead. Last month alone, more than five billion searches were run on Google. My 75-year-old mother doesn’t even look in the Yellow Pages anymore. The issue now? How do you create and maintain a web presence that correctly markets your business? According to a recent Forrester study, if your website is over 36 months old, it is just as dead as the Yellow Pages. Wow. Just 36 short months.
In this article I am going to share with you two simple secrets you can do on your own to revitalize your website.
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