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Archive for the ‘General Information’ Category
Are you struggling to choose colors?
Monday, October 6th, 2008
I stumbled upon a website, www.colorsontheweb.com, that is dedicated to — you guessed it, color. In particular, the website focusses on colors related to the web. Not only does the site educate you on color theory, color physics, combining colors (how and why), but it has an extremely easy to use feature that lets you “spin” the color wheel to select three colors that go well together.
What is color?
Simply put, color is the way our eyes and brain interpret electromagnetic radiation of wavelengths between 350 and 750 nanometers. The image below of the color spectrum shows the range of 350 to 750 nanometers. To the extreme left, or less than 350 nanometers, is Ultra-Violet. Likewise, to the extreme right, or greater than 750 nanometer, is Infra-Red.
Is a color just a color?
No colors can evoke emotion, actions, thoughts, and more. Based on the colors you paint your office or the colors you select for your website we can determine the preconceived emotions and thoughts of visits.
“Red is the color that provokes the most physiological responses. It has been shown that red causes the human heart beat and blood pressure to rise and to aid the interconnection of brain neurons. It has also been shown that people working in a red environment work faster, but they also make more mistakes. It increases restlessness and nervous tension. Also, red is commonly regarded to increase appetite.
Combining Colors
Combining colors can be difficult. Which colors go best together, which colors are best for a background and for contrasting text, which colors should be used to evoke a predetermined emotion? For the most part selecting colors that go well with each other is a personal preference. There are some guidelines that you can use when selecting colors but always select what looks good to you and don’t be afraid to ask for opinions.
For more information on how to select colors for combined use please read this page: Combining Colors
Visit the site today to start selecting colors
for your next design project!
7 online security blunders
Saturday, October 4th, 2008
These common mistakes can ruin your computer or invite identity theft
- Assuming your security software is protecting you.
Security software is fully effective only when activated and frequently updated. (Most products can update automatically.) To update most commercial software products, you must pay an annual fee. Last fall, the National Cyber Security Alliance and the software maker McAfee found that nearly half the users polled who thought their software was protecting them hadn’t updated it regularly. Software bundled with a new computer requires special attention because its subscription may expire within weeks.
What you can do: Renew the subscription when the software prompts you. Make sure your security software is active when you’re online and that it has been updated within the past week or so. (Most products will display that information.) If it wasn’t updated recently, verify that its automatic updating feature is enabled. If it isn’t, that‘s the problem; enable it, then update manually. If you can’t, your subscription has probably expired. Renew it or call the software maker. If you can update only manually, automatic updating might not be working. Call the software company’s support line for help. (For help in choosing security software, see our latest security suite report and Ratings of security software, available to subscribers.)
- Accessing an account through an e-mail link.
No matter how official an e-mail message looks, trying to access a financial account by clicking on embedded Web links is risky. If the e-mail message is fraudulent, a cybercriminal could use the account number and password you enter to steal your identity or empty your bank account.
What you can do: If an e-mail message asks you to update your password, account number, or other information, don’t take the bait. Access an online account only by using your existing browser bookmark or typing in the institution’s Web address. If you suspect that an e-mail is a phishing attempt, forward it to spam@uce.gov and reportphishing@antiphishing.org.
- Using a single password for all online accounts.
Nine percent of home Internet users who responded to our State of the Net survey said they used a single password for all their accounts. That practice lets someone who gets your password and steals your identity easily access all your accounts.
What you can do: Using different passwords need not be burdensome. Do what 15 percent of the respondents to our survey do: Use variations on one password. A well-crafted password uses a combination of at least eight letters, numbers, or punctuation symbols. For convenience, you can use a fingerprint reader to store passwords for sites you go to often. For more on secure passwords, go to How to tame the password tangle.
- Downloading free software
You couldn’t resist that neat, free utility. Or your teenager couldn’t resist those fish-tank screen savers and smiley faces. Now your computer runs more slowly than ever. That’s because spyware was probably packaged with the freebies.
What you can do: Download freeware only from reputable sites such as SnapFiles.com and Download.com. Tell your kids that free software is often anything but. Eliminate most spyware by downloading the free Microsoft Windows Defender and scanning your PC. If you use Windows Vista, there should already be a copy of Defender on your computer.
- Thinking your Mac shields you from all risks
According to this year’s State of the Net survey, Mac users fall prey to phishing scams at about the same rate as Windows users, yet far fewer of them protect themselves with an anti-phishing toolbar. To make matters worse, the browser of choice for most Mac users, Apple’s Safari, has no phishing protection. We think it should.
What you can do: Until Apple beefs up Safari, use a browser with phishing protection, such as the latest version of Firefox (shown at right) or Opera. Also try a free anti-phishing toolbar such as McAfee Site Advisor or FirePhish.
- Clicking on a pop-up ad that says your PC is insecure
Fifteen percent of respondents to our survey who saw pop-up ads clicked on them. But that’s never a good idea. Even if you know such pop-ups are phonies, they’re still dangerous. It’s easy to click inside the ad by mistake and be transferred to a spyware site or, worse, have malware automatically downloaded onto your computer. Our survey showed that 13 percent of respondents who saw such a pop-up tried to close it but launched it instead; 3 percent clicked on a pop-up and got a malware infection.
What you can do: When closing a pop-up (shown at left), carefully click on the X on the upper left or right corner, not within the window. To avoid pop-ups altogether, enable your browser’s pop-up blocker or use a free add-on blocker such as Google Toolbar.
- Shopping online the same way you do in stores
Online shopping requires special precautions because the risks are different than in a walk-in store: You can’t always be sure who you’re doing business with. You must disclose more personal information, such as your address, to the online retailer. Thieves can sneak in undetected between you and the retail site.
What you can do: Use a separate credit card just for your Internet shopping, as did 7 percent of respondents to our survey. Don’t use a debit card. Sites that display “https” before their address when you’re entering sensitive information and those displaying certification symbols from TRUSTe and other organizations are usually safe, but there are no guarantees. When in doubt, get a virtual account number from your credit-card company. It’s good for only one purchase from a specific vendor.
THIS ARTICLE IS FROM CONSUMERREPORTS.ORG: FULL ARTICLE
Five Business Survival Tips During Recession
Friday, September 5th, 2008
Economic difficulties are prevalent and no one is being spared. Everyone is feeling the ill effects of current market conditions. The housing market and oil prices skyrocketed countless times over the past several months. Most feel that the situation could get worse by 2009. Whether you are an employee or a top-ranking business leader, bare in mind that you may be unable to prevent recession from taking over for a while, but you are always able to look for ways to get by and stay sane long enough to see a brighter time.
Here are some tips that can help you keep your boat afloat as you sail past that economic storm.
- Tap emergency fund and not the fixed expenses allotment. College economic courses have taught you well enough that economies go through cycles of expansion and contraction. Theories however, are a lot easier to learn. Living actual business circumstances especially the agonizing ones, is another matter altogether. Economic depressions are both real and painful; anyone involved in business has to live though it. Start with accepting and managing that expectation and you have solved half the dilemma. Business people who understand that difficult economic events do happen allow for padding that they can touch when hard times come. In other words, these people prepare and are not rattled easily by news of contractions. Cutting corners is always an option though one has to be extremely careful in deciding which is fat and which is muscle.
- Maintain (if unable to increase) your marketing dollars. Marketing expenses should be a fixed expense. Just like what oxygen is to your body, marketing is your business’s way to grow and expand. No matter what happens, decide against cutting marketing budgets. Slow market times are the best times to buy shares in their lowest prices while preserving the shares’ potential payoffs in the future.
- Continue to give and upgrade the best possible product or service you could give to your loyal consumers. Cutting back on spending which could mean either lesser transactions or smaller purchases (or both) are oftentimes a customer’s answer to difficult times as a way to save every possible penny. Give your regulars good reasons (superior quality, excellent customer service, etc.) why they should cut back on everything else but your business.
- Lower prices instead of giving discounts. If you believe that giving discounts will keep your business going, think again. Discounting your products whether in good times or bad, gives consumers the impression of inferior quality. In the 1990’s, McDonalds and Burger King placed their Big Macs and Whoppers on sale, and without intent, they trained their customers to never pay for the full price. The margin problem took years to recuperate. The same thing could happen to your business. If you must, lower the price instead of giving and saying the” d” word.
- Ward off nervous ticks by setting a clear direction and expectation among your employees. Whether or not you tell your people about the bad times, they are bound to know because the news is delivered to them in a very personal manner each day when they buy food from the grocery or when they pay for gas. The best thing that can be done is to come clean and talk to your employees openly about the situation. Educate them in terms of where the company is and what the plan will be. This will help alleviate their fear of the unknown and as a result allow them to continue performing, as they should.
Most importantly, despite the increasing prices of almost everything, remember that humans have needs and will always have to spend on their basic necessities, good times or bad. The only difference between the good and bad times is that it is during an economic crunch that consumers become more critical in letting go of their dollars. Only those who offer the best quality in products and services at the right price can thrive in and survive the neck-to-neck competition.
Google Search Without Google Sites? Yes, It’s Possible
Wednesday, August 27th, 2008
The Rub
If you feel concerned that Google has been saturating its search results with Google-related sites, you may want to try Google Minus Google.
The Solution
Google Minus Google is both a site and a tool devised to address the growing issues about Google stepping on someone else’s business or turf. The issue surfaced and grew stronger with the introduction of Knol, a space where experts could come together and contribute information, hoping to create a Wikipedia-like store of information. Knol is different from Wikipedia because latter is edited collectively and is ad-free. Knol, however, has the contributors keep control over content and Knol contributors sign their write-ups in. They may even opt to place ads in their pages, sold by Google, too.
Google Minus Google is both a site and a tool devised to address the growing issues about Google stepping on someone else’s business or turf. The issue surfaced and grew stronger with the introduction of Knol, a space where experts could come together and contribute information, hoping to create a Wikipedia-like store of information. Knol is different from Wikipedia because latter is edited collectively and is ad-free. Knol, however, has the contributors keep control over content and Knol contributors sign their write-ups in. They may even opt to place ads in their pages, sold by Google, too.
These Knol pages have ranked high despite having been in the traffic for only three weeks, which caused the growing concern regarding Google’s deemed monopoly.
Integrity Questioned
A lot of people pointed out that if Google-owned websites such as Knol, YouTube, and Blogger account kept popping up during a visitor’s search as the top results, the objectivity of the searches will be compromised. Worse, not only is the fairness of the search questioned, but also, the professed friendship of Google to media companies is at an even greater stake.
Google Minus Google
A blogger in Finland, Timo Paloheimo, has thought of a brilliant idea. A tool excluding Google-owned websites could be placed to serve as an option for visitors to search Google, sans the risk of top ranking Google domains dominating the searched list. This tool is extremely helpful in filtering out websites operated by Google, thus giving other websites better chances of being found through their SEO’s.
Paloheimo said that on its first day, the site got a remarkable 3,000 hits attracting comments from people from as far as Argentina. Other blogs suggested improvements to it such as filtering out Wikipedia.
What Google Says
Right now, Google has professed no copyright or trademark issues regarding the advanced search feature. In fact, it welcomes the efforts warmly, if only to deliver useful information and most importantly, for the benefits of the users.
So What Exactly Is “Cloud Computing”?
Monday, August 25th, 2008
Cloud computing using Google Apps was first patronized by only a handful of staff at Sanmina-SCI (SANM), a company with a $10.7 billion of revenue annually, using the applications to send emails, create documents, and schedule appointments and commitments. After six months, the handful went up to a thousand users of the electronics manufacturing company going online to use Google applications, shunting Microsoft tools to one side.
According to Manesh Patel, the chief information officer of Sanmina-SCI, the Google Apps make a difference between a poorly collaborated cluster and an organized, well-coordinated project teams. He even projected the Google Apps users to increase by 25% (totals 10,000) in the next three years.
Sanmina (which is based in San Jose, California) and Google spearhead a significant shift in the way organizations avail of software and computing capacity as well. Amazon, Salesforce.com, IBM, Oracle, and Microsoft aid corporate clients in exploring the Internet from extra server space down to software which manages customer relationships more effectively.
So What Exactly Is “Cloud Computing”?
The computing tasks (referred to as “cloud computing”) are assigned to a remote location rather than to the company’s own server. Cloud computing services are delivered all over the Internet depending on the demand from massive data centers. A million-dollar enterprise, Merrill Lynch’s estimate is that the annual international demand for cloud computing will be up to $95 billion. Based on May 2008 report, 12% of software market worldwide would choose cloud computing, in fact, IBM, DELL, and Hewlett Packard are looking to shift to cloud computing in the near future. Even IBM professes its willingness to spend $36-M to build cloud computing data center in Research Triangle Park, N.C. Michael Dell, DELL CEO, stresses that they’ve put together a new industry building custom products for customers with specific needs to address.
Question of Reliability
Some companies have qualms regarding the system’s reliability, but Daryl Plummer, managing vice-president of consulting firm Gartner, reasoned that technologies take some time to achieve that perfection which everyone might be looking for. Google Apps as an example might not offer the same features as Microsoft Office Professional, but is effective in maintaining collaborations among employees globally.
Dave Girouard, of Google, stressed that things are not expected to turn out as smoothly or as perfectly as one hopes to be but Patel of Sanmina said that in the long term, it shouldn’t pan out so badly. Girouard noted that more than half of the 500,000 organization use the free version of Google Apps.
Cloud computing might give HR a run for their money because the idea of moving attendance monitoring and expense reporting into Google Apps is something that is explored by Patel. Taking baby steps, as per Patel’s remark coupled with trying lower-priority applications will help them get the results they are aiming for. Cloud computing might not be applicable to storing financial and health records due to rules for security and privacy but a private cloud may be a possibility.
Generally, most feel that the system has to iron out things first before anyone adopts it on larger scale. An upswing in revenue is expected as more companies become more comfortable with the system. Google Apps will be provided for free, too. As Girouard at Google puts it, they intend to “generate millions of users for life”.
A Happy Face: Facebook Remains on Top
Saturday, August 23rd, 2008
What makes for a good social networking website?
Is it the look and feel of the website, the ease of navigation, the tools and features?
For Facebook, it is the pleasant mixture of all three with a slightly more focus on technology-driven tools that has enabled it to overtake its close competitor, MySpace.
The Beginning
Ever since its birth in February 2004, Facebook, the privately owned and operated social networking website has been enticing and accumulating followers, being a free-access website where people from all walks of life can join networks (organized by cities, workplaces, schools, or regions) to interact with others, and to some extent, rekindle old friendships and reconnect past relationships.
Beyond the Face Value
Four years have passed and Facebook has managed to remain virtually on top while undergoing a lot of progress in terms of applications. Starting from an idea (the website’s name came from the “paper facebooks” illustrating members of a campus community that some American colleges and preparatory schools give to incoming students, faculty, or staff aiming to familiarize them with the other people inside the campus) of a then Harvard sophomore student, Mark Zuckerberg, the website turned out to be a major hit as a multi-million dollar enterprise.
Bridging Gaps and Cultural Differences
The CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, describes the impact of Facebook through a story about a group of young militants from Lebanon who have reconciled their views of Western culture by way of Facebook friendships. The story spoke of the free expression of ideas which the World Wide Web allows, thus making people rise above their cultural disparities.
On Expansion and Language Translation
Facebook has reached a great number of users, as it quickly expands to other regions, internationally. In fact, the website stands unruffled to the top as a global social network. The numbers released in August 12 by comScore says it all. There are about 132 million followers of Facebook, 63% of which are outside North America. It helped that the network has been translated to 20 languages such as French, Spanish, and Mandarin. Recently, it has added 69 more languages. The international manager of Facebook, Javier Olivan views this as more than just enabling everyone to understand one another. The translations, according to him, will jumpstart astronomical growth internationally.
Growing and Thriving
To date, Facebook faces tough competition with MySpace and News Corp.’s to name a couple. They not only focus on their local markets, but are also meaning to saturate the global scene to amplify audience growth, thus making them very attractive to advertisers and prospective investors.
MySpace has spread out in 29 countries such as India and Korea. Based on a study from Pingdom, a Swedish website availability monitoring website; it is mostly frequented by users in US, Puerto Rico, Australia, Britain, and even in Asian countries such as Malaysia.
LinkedIn is another social network catering to professionals. According to Pingdom, it is popular in India, Netherlands, Denmark, Belgium, and US.
Despite all these, a staggering 153% increase in new members last June has thrown other social networks off-balance, in terms of the website’s success through a purely user adoption.
Tech-Savvy Socialization
Facebook proved to have more ease conquering the international market through its technology-driven strategy. The social network boasts of translation tools, enabling users to take their existing sites and personalize them using their native tongue. The tools proved to offer very accurate translations, setting it apart from the other social network websites. The senior analyst of comScore, Andrew Lipsman, said that it is indeed, a very scalable process, with the audience’s number multiplying really fast.
MySpace on the other hand follows a different route. Facebook’s close rival opens offices in countries where ad dollars and friends are probable. This strategy definitely slows down their expansion internationally but this approach is deemed to be a surefire way to better reflect the cultures of new countries while racking up dollars from advertisers, too. Soon, according to Jeff Berman, MySpace’s president of sales and marketing, MySpace’s non-US users will cover half or 50 percent of the its total revenue.
Hi5 language translation tool applications strategy resembles that of Facebook’s, except that this social network from San Francisco initially hired a third-party service provider, Lionsbridge, to translate the social network to languages such as Japanese. This strategy increased its popularity, making the base users amount to a hefty 56 million. According to Pingdom, the site remains immensely popular in Latin America.
More Possibilities
The Facebook executives, though focused at present on the website’s tools, have not closed their doors on the possibility of opening offices in other countries to make their website more culturally-relevant, similar to the strategy employed by MySpace. Right now however, Olivan stresses that as long as there are users, advertisers will continue to create campaigns and put ads on their sites, making Facebook remain universal.
Pointers for Late Starters on Facebook
Thursday, August 21st, 2008
Admit it. At one point in time, you became curious, even a little interested. You want to know why people are so hooked on this tech-savvy social networking site people call “Facebook”.
Well, Facebook is free and what have you got to lose?
Sign up today! Here are some ideas to get you started.
More is more. Relationships are at an all-time high. At first glance it may not seem to matter, but it does. Your Facebook friends are your connections. The more Facebook friends you have, the more connections you are exposed to – thus the more opportunities. If you are managing your own business or are thinking of starting one, you may want to consider taking advantage of the endless possibilities that Facebook offers.
Facebook friends may not only be that; they can also be your future contacts or investors, or customers. It is a business tool that’s both cost-effective (it’s free!) and relatively convenient. Launch your companies, create jobs for people, introduce new industries, make a world of difference, the list just goes on and on. Now how good does that sound?
Facebook friends go beyond the word “friend”. We don’t mean just because you have the name of someone on your friend’s list does not mean that he or she is someone you are really close to. Some of them are just friends of your friends or someone you met casually at some place you probably have forgotten about already. The word here is “connection”. You connect with anyone and everyone in the World Wide Web. But at any rate, you may never know when that connection will come in handy someday.
Photos make you. It is never debatable to say that the photo application of Facebook is by far one of the most popular applications on the said social networking website. It is always recommended to show your own picture on Facebook. The whole point of social networking websites is to socialize, not to hide. People might think that you are concealing yourself and your identity by putting photos that are not exactly relevant to you (or that’s not you, simply put). It is also a good idea to change your photos and by changing we mean updating them or adding to them from time to time. Updating them gives the impression that you are dynamic and you like to move forward.
Facebook, surprisingly, can accomplish as much as your Rolodex can do. Sometimes, business executives won’t have time to communicate through phone calls and emails, but with the advent of Facebook, they found themselves making more room and time in their schedule to check their accounts. A message sent through Facebook provides a more refreshing change from the stiff business emails business executives get all the time. Take advantage of this and you might make more business deals than you normally do the traditional way.
Update your status, people care. Another tool made available in Facebook is the status of the account user. The status lets people in on your feelings and the current status of your life. This is mostly useful in terms of expressing yourself; but is also helpful for other people to know you more. Once again, use good judgment. Make it a point to express yourself simply and without much detail. It is possible to express yourself without losing your privacy.
Relationships are currency, so they say. There’s nothing wrong with thinking along these lines as long as one continues to be responsible and honest with his dealings with other men and women. Use it to build good and honest relationships, whether platonic, romantic, or business-related. Beyond the idea of not having a social network being ‘uncool’, it all boils down to being able to keep up with technology. Anyway, the whole point of technology is to make people’s lives better and more meaningful.
Google Ranking Based on Server Location
Wednesday, August 20th, 2008
It was announced that Google takes into consideration, amongst a plethora of other variables, the location of your server that hosts your website. Although this was known before it helps to have it confirmed by Searchnomics 2007.
Really, it makes perfect sense.
If you search for the same phrase on Google.com and Google.co.uk you will get different results. What this tells us is that if you are an American company selling to American consumers you should host your website on an American server - not a server in another part of the world.
Thank goodness my server is only up in Michigan. Just a short (well not really short) drive away.
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Dare to Defy: Counterprogramming Works!
Tuesday, August 19th, 2008
In an industry where it is a dog eats dog battle, it is crucial to come up with a marketing strategy that will make your wares sellable, if monopolizing a target market is not an option.
How does one set his products or services apart from the rest? Take a leaf out of Universal Pictures, Carl’s Jr., and Southwest Airlines’ book and try counterprogramming.
Counterprogramming operates under the assumption that a particular product or service has a target market. Rarely does one encounter a product that answers everyone’s needs. Therefore, there is always a need to fill and address, and with filling that void comes your target market.
Timing may also be a key. When a competitor launches a product or a service, a counter to that product or service may be presented, too. Consumers would always need an option and would welcome a refreshing one at that.
Starting for example with the case of Universal Pictures which chose to show Mamma Mia amidst the hype of Batman: The Dark Knight, Universal Pictures saw the possibility that the older, female demographic would not be as thrilled as the young, male audience to see Batman hurrying off to free Gotham. They would probably prefer Meryl Streep’s hilarity of having to solve the riddle of her daughter’s paternity (her daughter who is a would-be bride had three alleged fathers).
Counterprogramming is another avenue opened to competitors to offer an alternative when another competitor’s creation is less appealing. For example, the proliferation of fast food fare coupled with Morgan Spurlock’s 2004 documentary “Super Size Me” gave McDonald a run for their money. To repair the damage, McDonald and Taco Bell started offering slightly healthier fare (not that any fast food is really healthy). Crusades against trans fat and fast food restaurants sprouted up faster than one can say “fast food”, causing a ban against them. Despite the growing resistance to the fast food way of life, there were still those who craved “real [fast] food”.
This made Carl Jr. tout its own sandwiches, in terms of size and sloppiness, to tap the once big market for fast food. The result is a 730-calorie, 47-fat-grams Monster Breakfast Sandwich, tagged as “Breakfast as Big as Our Burgers”. Up to this day, Carl Jr. continues to serve and feed the hungry stomachs of young men.
Southwest Airlines follows a different lead but with a similar tactic. While most airlines would charge for every single thing a passenger would ask for during a flight, Southwest Airlines is very proud to say that “Fees Don’t Fly with Us”. Never charging for second suitcase, snacks, a choice to sit in a window seat, pillows or blankets, bottles of water, and fuel (though most airlines would disguise it under the term “surcharge”), the airline racked up more dollars than those who do.
The bottom line of counterprogramming is to make your ware different so it would stand out. Put more items for consumption than frills. Sell to an untapped market (a market where there is only a few selection or a narrow array of choices), allow for something (this really depends on your own considerations) that others will not allow. One man’s loss is another man’s gain anyway.
Going against the flow may just give you the sales that you are aiming for. If you like more risks, do not only take the road less traveled; instead, blaze new trails. You will never know what treasures you might unearth.
A Lesson In Teamwork
Friday, August 15th, 2008
I think we can all learn a little something about teamwork from this group of young men and women. This is absolutely spectacular synchronization, timing, teamwork — amazing!
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