BDPA Detroit TAC

Lamp hijacks electricity from unused telephone jack

noreply@blogger.com (Cliff Samuels Jr) — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 16:18:00 +0000

Lamp hijacks electricity from unused telephone jack

Bright idea or a TOS violation?

By Paul McNamara

We've all seen lamps with phone jacks in hotel rooms. Well, here's a lamp that plugs into a phone jack in your home and operates by filching the trickle of electricity found there.

Clever?

Bound to upset phone companies?

Both?

The lamp is sold by an outfit called UxSight, which lists addresses in Hong Kong and San Mateo, Calif.

Here are some of the specs:

Environment friendly 8 LED RJ11 Lamp is powered by any available RJ11 socket only;
Made of durable plastic and alloy material, it features 8 white LEDs and ON/OFF button;
Life of LEDs last up to 100,000 hours;
Goose neck makes you adjust the illuminating angle you desire.
This 8 LED Table Lamp can be used in nursery, child's bedroom, as a desk light or bedside lamp;

At the princely sum of $4.69 -- less than the shipping fee -- we'll have to be forgiven for presuming this is a piece of crap.

UxSight describes itself as being "about lifestyle improvement at a reasonable cost. We provide the largest selection of consumer goodies at bargain prices."

OK, it's a reasonably priced piece of crap. Still interesting, though.

I'm going to guess that phone companies will frown on this type of thing and that somewhere buried deep inside of your phone bill and/or user agreement will be language making that clear. I'll ping some PR types to see if I can find out for sure.

In the meantime, caveat emptor.

(Update: An incredulous Verizon public relations professional says he'll track down an answer for me; I could practically see his eyes rolling in the e-mail.)

Wealth File

noreply@blogger.com (Cliff Samuels Jr) — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 14:04:00 +0000

Wealth File #12:

Rich people think "both."
Poor people think "either/or."

Rich people live in a world of abundance. Poor people live in a world of scarcity. Of course, both live in the same physical world, but the difference is in their perspective. Poor and middle-class people come from scarcity. They live by mottos such as "There’s only so much to go around," "There’s never enough," and "You can’t have everything." And although you may not be able to have everything, as in all the things in the world, I do think you can certainly have "everything you really want."

Do you want a successful career or a close relationship with your family?

Both!

Do you want to focus on business or have fun and play?

Both!

Do you want money or meaning in your life?

Both!

Do you want to earn a fortune or do work that you love?

Both!

Poor people always choose one, rich people choose…

Both!

To your success,

Low voter turn out in Detroit despite hype of needed change.

noreply@blogger.com (Cliff Samuels Jr) — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 15:29:00 +0000

Voter turn out for the Detroit election was only about 22%. Yes, we did change some of the City Council but why are we still not VOTING. Everyone needs to read this memo from Citibank to understand the why VOTING is important. Voting is the only power that can even up the power of the other 90 % of the citizen without wealth iff we hold our elected officials accountable. Thanks to Michael Moore in digging this up from his new movie Capitalism: A Love Story a must see

http://www.scribd.com/doc/6674234/Citigroup-Oct-16-2005-Plutonomy-Report-Part-1

http://www.scribd.com/doc/6674229/Citigroup-Mar-5-2006-Plutonomy-Report-Part-2

Here is an excerpt from this document stating the power of the vote:

IS THERE A BACKLASH BUILDING?
Plutonomy, we suspect is elastic. Concentration of wealth and spending in the hands ofa few, probably has its limits. What might cause the elastic to snap back? We can see a number of potential challenges to plutonomy.The first, and probably most potent, is through a labor backlash. Outsourcing,offshoring or insourcing of cheap labor is done to undercut current labor costs. Those being undercut are losers in the short term. While there is evidence that this is positive for the average worker (for example Ottaviano and Peri) it is also clear that high-cost substitutable labor loses. Low-end developed market labor might not have much economic power, but it does have equal voting power with the rich.

This is a must read report. Basically it states what all know ; the rich get richer and the poor get poorer because we believe that the system of Plutonomy will allow all of us normal people to someday become rich. We could change this very inequitable system BUT the dream of becoming rich is a too irresistible of a carrot that is being dangled in front of us to forget we still have some power to change this situation.

Motivational Monday

noreply@blogger.com (Cliff Samuels Jr) — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 14:44:00 +0000

The Passion to Thrive

The strongest may survive but it is the passionate that will thrive.

Whether I’m speaking to an NFL team, school principals, or leaders of world class organization such as Pepperidge Farm, Citizens Bank, and Northwestern Mutual my message is the same:
If you want to be successful today you must load your "Energy Bus" with passionate people... and most of all you must be passionate yourself.

In the past you could be lukewarm and mediocre and still be successful.

Not anymore.

Now, in today’s competitive environment, your passion and your purpose must be greater than your challenges.

You have to be willing to work harder, run faster, drive further, study more, practice longer, lead better, sweat more, love deeper and this requires passion.

Passion wakes you up 30 minutes earlier. It dials your phone one more time to make one more sale. It rallies your team together when times are tough. It moves you to see one more patient after a long day at the hospital. It inspires you to help a struggling student. It provides legendary customer service. Passion transforms workplaces, powers champions and fuels winning teams.

But what about someone who has a low paying job or who is in a job that quite frankly is hard to be passionate about you might ask? I get this question often and my answer is: It’s not the job or the money you are being paid but the passion that you bring to your job that matters. After all, I’ve met bus drivers who are more passionate about their jobs than professional athletes making millions of dollars.

Sure, I realize that not everyone is going to be passionate about their daily responsibilities associated with their job, however, in these cases you can be passionate about the organization you work for. You can be passionate about your team members and helping your team improve, grow and succeed. You can be passionate about your mission and customers. You can be passionate about making a difference.

Leaders, you must also foster this passion in your organization and make passion an essential element of your culture. Stop sucking the life out of your employees and wonder why they aren’t delivering the results you want. Instead create a team that is passionate about their mission, driven with purpose and energized by working together. Inspire your team with passion and they will drive The Energy Bus for you.

If your people aren’t passionate about the work they do and the people they work with, and if they aren’t passionate about your brand and mission, then you need to let them off the bus so they can find another bus where they can live their passion.

This is good for them and it’s good for your team.

By letting disengaged employees off the bus you make room for those who are passionate about your team and organization—and with a bus filled with passionate people you will thrive while others merely try to survive.

Are you living and working with your passion? How can you start today? Join the conversation on our blog.

- Jon

Beware the Fake Google Chrome OS Download

noreply@blogger.com (Cliff Samuels Jr) — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 14:43:00 +0000

Beware the Fake Google Chrome OS Download

Gizmodo posted that an early version is available. Gizmodo is credible and respected, but the download is a fake.

By Tony Bradley

Google recently announced that it is developing its own operating system based around the Chrome web browser, named appropriately enough Chrome OS. For the past week there have been rumors circulating about a leaked version being available for download. Don't believe the hype. The 'leaked version' is a fake that is not related to Google at all.

Even a trusted source like Gizmodo has perpetuated the myth that Chrome is available. Its tough when there is so much pressure to be the first to publish a breaking news story. Gizmodo recently reported a story of alleged Chrome operating system screen shots, but later updated the story to state that it was verified as a fake. Gizmodo pushed the story of the fake download with a story titled Google Chrome OS Now Available, Go Get It .

The number of sites and individuals who are propagating the story is lending credibility to the false rumor. A quick scan of Twitter or a quick search of the Web will lead to all sorts of seemingly reputable sources talking about the availability of the Chrome OS beta. Most of the excitement though can be traced back to Gizmodo. It is a trusted source of breaking tech news and it doesn't take much for an announcement on Gizmodo to go viral on Twitter and blog sites.

The site in question appears legitimate in so much as it is actually on the google.com domain. The site lists features like a GNOME desktop, Google Picassa integration, and a Flash Player plugin. It comes complete with a few Google logos scattered about.

However, it is actually a product of Google Sites. Basically, someone created a page with Google Sites which points to sites.google.com and populated it with basic information about the Chrome OS which could be extracted from publicly available details Google has shared, then added a link to download some other completely unrelated tool.

To be fair, the site owner did include a disclaimer at the bottom stating "Chrome OS is not related to Google. Service is provided by SUSE Studio. Seethe license." Google has since disabled the site for violating the Google Sites terms of service.

Chrome sounds like it has promise, although the operating system market is a tough sell that is already filled with dominating players like Microsoft and Apple. Of course, Google hasn't shied away from head-to-head battles with either of those companies in other arenas like Web search, mobile phone operating systems, or web browsers.

Be patient. The fervor over all things Google is remotely understandable, but Rome wasn't built in a day. Even Google will take some time to develop an actual operating system. When it is actually available, I am sure you will hear about it.

In the meantime, if a guy in a dark alley whispers that he has an early version of Chrome OS available, there is good reason to be suspicious. Google may have shut down this fake Chrome OS site, but others are sure to follow. If it walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, its probably a duck. Check your sources and exercise some common sense before you rush to download a fake, and potentially malicious, Chrome OS.

Tony Bradley is an information security and unified communications expert with more than a decade of enterprise IT experience. He tweets as @PCSecurityNews and provides tips, advice and reviews on information security and unified communications technologies on his site at tonybradley.com .

Gaping security hole turned 64,000 Time Warner cable modems into hacker prey

noreply@blogger.com (Cliff Samuels Jr) — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 15:21:00 +0000

Gaping security hole turned 64,000 Time Warner cable modems into hacker prey

Cable modem security problem is patched, but customers' networks were vulnerable

By Tim Greene

A blogger helping to tune a friend's wi-fi network uncovered a gaping security hole in Wi-Fi cable modem routers installed in 64,000 Time Warner subscribers' homes, leaving them open to attack.

Time Warner says that within the past week it has patched the problem until the manufacturer can provide a permanent fix, but before that it had allowed administrative access to the routers. Attackers could then run a variety of programs against these routers, says David Chen in his blog Chenosaurus.

Because the vulnerability let anyone anywhere on the Internet take over control of the router, they could launch attacks from within Time Warner customers' homes.

"From within your own network, an intruder can eavesdrop on sensitive data being sent over the Internet and even worse, they can manipulate the DNS address to point trusted sites to malicious servers to perform man-in-the-middle attacks," Chen writes. "Someone skilled enough can possibly even modify and install a new firmware onto the router, which can then automatically scan and infect other routers automatically."

Chen says he discovered that administrative control of the routers had been blocked by a Java script. He disabled Java on his friend's router and had access to all the router's settings. He opened the backup configuration file and discovered the administrative login and password in plaintext.

He says he was able to run a port scan on Time Warner IP addresses and found dozens of these routers that were open to attack. The router involved is the SMC 8014 wireless router and cable modem, says Alex Dudley, vice president of public relations for Time Warner. He says his company is waiting for a permanent fix from SMC that Time Warner will run quality assurance testing on before pushing it to the affected routers.

Chen also notes that the router allows only Wired Equivalent Privacy encryption, which he says is readily broken, allowing anyone who can break WEP access to the network. He also says the fixed format for the routers' SSIDs makes it possible to figure out which Wi-Fi networks are run by SMC 801

LinkedIn: the secret to the online business network's success

noreply@blogger.com (Cliff Samuels Jr) — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 12:52:00 +0000

LinkedIn: the secret to the online business network's success

With 50 million members, including Richard Branson and Alan Sugar, LinkedIn's success story quietly rivals that of Facebook.

By Andrew Keen is @ajkeen on Twitter

In spite of its clunky interface, credible business people can no longer afford to avoid LinkedIn

For all the continual media frenzy over Facebook and Twitter, the most remarkable social networking story of all may well be LinkedIn, the global social network for business professionals founded by serial Silicon Valley entrepreneur Reid Hoffman in December 2002. Last week, a bullish LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner announced its 50 millionth member, stressing that while it took sixteen months for the social network to get its first million members, the most recent million only took 12 days.

While the LinkedIn 50 million may pale in comparison with the Facebook 300 million army, its achievement is quite remarkable when one considers that there are only around 360 million white collar professional people in the entire world (at least according to the latest International Department of Labor numbers). So over 10% of the world’s professionals are already on LinkedIn. And with the social network now signing up a new member every second of every hour of every day, it shouldn’t be too long before the other 90% of the world’s business professionals eventually wind up in the LinkedIn universe.

So can 50 million professionals really be wrong? And what, exactly, is it about LinkedIn that has made it such a hit around the world, attracting business professionals from 200 countries?

According to Kevin Eyres, the London based Managing Director of LinkedIn’s European operation, it’s all about professionals now “taking more responsibility for their own careers.” In the current recession, he explained to me when we spoke on the telephone yesterday, everyone is “thinking like an entrepreneur.” Getting onto LinkedIn allows us to be “proactive” in building our own networks, finding new staff, rebuilding one’s career, “showcasing” skills and, above all perhaps, organizing one’s “reputation”.

Thinking like an entrepreneur is clearly something that the LinkedIn team is doing very impressively. According to Eyres, the business – which in June last year raised a $53 million round of venture capital - has been profitable for the last two years. And unlike the advertising dependant Facebook, LinkedIn has three “roughly equal streams” of revenue: Premium subscriptions, software as a service and advertising.

According to Eyres, some cultures are better than others at thinking like collaborative entrepreneurs. Holland, for example, is “off the charts” – something that Eyres explains in terms of networking being historically “part of the Dutch DNA.” The Danes too excel in this. While for other less advantaged groups in more conservative, inward-looking cultures – such as Italian women – LinkedIn has actually enabled the levelling of the socio-economic playing field.

It’s no coincidence, of course, that major LinkedIn success stories like Holland, Denmark and even India are all cultures in which English is widely spoken. But in European countries in which English is less prevalent, LinkedIn has had less success.

And this is why Eyres has launched German (January 2009), French (November 2008) and Spanish (August 2008) language sites over the last fourteen months.

Even in the United Kingdom, certainly not a culture as rooted in the collaborative network as much as Holland or Denmark, Eyres is excited by LinkedIn’s progress. Over the last six months, he told me, the UK membership had reached a “tipping point” in which the traditionally reticent locals have become more and more comfortable with both promoting themselves and with giving professional recommendations to others.

So why should one be on LinkedIn? I asked Eyres. What would he say to entice the roughly 310 million professionals who still haven’t signed up for the service?

“You aren’t doing your job correctly if you aren’t on it,” Eyres responded. LinkedIn is going to get you ahead by allowing you to get more knowledge, by enabling you to reach out to a network of like-minded professionals, by giving you access to a uniquely collaborative business environment.

Eyres may well be right. The LinkedIn mantra that “relationships matter” has become the central dogma of our social media age. And over the next year – as LinkedIn adds third party applications to its platform and adds an iPhone app and grows its markets in Latin American and Asia – relationships will matter more and more.

In spite of its sometimes clunky interface and cumbersome networking tools, credible business people can no longer afford to avoid LinkedIn. As Eyres reminded me, even Richard Branson and Alan Sugar are on it. Could there be a better reason to get linked in?

Don't volunteer if you can't close the deal

noreply@blogger.com (Cliff Samuels Jr) — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 12:41:00 +0000

Don't volunteer if you can't close the deal

Author: Toni Bowers

I read an article by Career Advancement Expert Linda Lopeke in which she said that one of the worst career killing mistakes is to not take action. As she put it:

Taking action is the one thing that renders all on-the-job competition irrelevant. It requires no special tools or intelligence. And 98% of your co-workers will NOT be doing it. In any organization there are always a bazillion things that need to be done. However, 10% of the employee population will make professional commitments to getting thing one with enthusiasm. And only 2% ever actually take action. Management has to constantly chase and follow up with the other 98% if they want to make sure things are getting done. So what this means is if you work in a department of 100 people, only 10 people will have high potential and only 2 people will be in direct competition for raises and promotions. So, if you’re not taking action you are automatically keeping yourself from getting ahead.

I couldn’t agree more. And here is my two cents worth:

Taking action does not mean saying you’ll do something and then not getting around to it for weeks. Some people think that if they display a gung-ho attitude in a meeting and volunteer for a task then they have scored points for their career, but it is a delusion to think that the actual follow-through doesn’t matter.

If your manager has to constantly follow up with you to make sure things are getting done, then you’re not being helpful. You have actually doubled his or her work. And don’t think it’s not noticed. It may not go in your performance appraisal because managers are sometimes reluctant to make formal notes about volunteered tasks, but he or she will make subconscious notes about your dependability. And the high-profile tasks will go to your co-worker who is known for closing the deal.

If you’re the employee who cheerfully agrees to help co-workers out but you actually never get around to finishing the task at hand, what good is that? Believe me when I say that you are not going to be known as the co-worker who always helps out; you’re going to be known as the co-worker who always volunteers to help out but never actually does it.

Maybe your schedule is too tight, time is too short, blah blah blah. This might be true once, but if it keeps happening, then you have a problem with time management. If you are consistently signing on for new projects and then dropping the ball, then you are not realistically perceiving your schedule and capabilities. Stop trying to reap the immediate benefits of seeming to be the helpful person if you can’t do the required work.

Motivational Moment

noreply@blogger.com (Cliff Samuels Jr) — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 12:34:00 +0000

FROM NIGHTINGALE.COM

"Wealth is the ability to fully experience life."

— Henry David Thoreau: was an American author, poet, and naturalist

Motivational Moment

noreply@blogger.com (Cliff Samuels Jr) — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 12:38:00 +0000

Thought for the Day

October 22, 2009

THOSE WHO CAN’T TAKE DIRECTIONS GRACIOUSLY HAVE NO BUSINESS GIVING THEM.

If you are an irresponsible or argumentative worker who cannot accept instructions from others, you are destined to remain at the bottom of the workforce. Before you can ever hope to manage other people, you must learn to manage yourself and your relationships with others effectively, particularly with those in higher positions in the organization. Unless you can learn how to manage your relationship with your own boss or bosses, you will never be able to manage a relationship with your subordinates.

This positive message is brought to you by the Napoleon Hill Foundation. Visit us at http://www.naphill.org. We encourage you to forward this to friends and family. They can sign up for this free service at our web site.

Motivational Monday

noreply@blogger.com (Cliff Samuels Jr) — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 12:13:00 +0000

Thought for the Day

October 19, 2009

COOPERATION MUST START AT THE HEAD OF A DEPARTMENT IF IT IS EXPECTED AT THE OTHER END. THE SAME IS TRUE FOR EFFICIENCY.

In most large organizations, the amount of time and energy that is squandered in interdepartmental rivalry is enormous. Managers who compete with others inside the company waste valuable resources that should be directed at fulfilling the company’s mission to serve its customers better. Worse, a negative, internal focus can cause the company to miss opportunities, the full effect of which may not be realized for months or even years. Whether you are the head of the department or the newest worker on the staff, you can help your company immeasurably by refusing to become embroiled in internal strife. Compete with yourself to do the best job you can do instead of competing with others.

This positive message is brought to you by the Napoleon Hill Foundation. Visit us at http://www.naphill.org.

Google Apps add-ons for the enterprise

noreply@blogger.com (Cliff Samuels Jr) — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 13:08:00 +0000

10 Google Apps add-ons for the enterprise

By Google Subnet

Google Apps is growing up. Over the past six months, dozens of developers have built apps to make Google's office wares (Apps, Docs, Gmail, Calendar) more appealing for the enterprise. The following is a selection of these apps. They range from the practical (backups) to the creative (a freebie VPN replacement based on Google Talk). Better still, most of them are free.

Google Apps Add-ons slideshow: see screenshots of all the tools listed here. [1]

myOneLogin
[2]

myOneLogin by TriCipher represents a growing category of add-ons for Google Apps, those that give it enterprise-class authentication. This particular app provides users with a single sign-on, two-factor authentication portal that is easy to set up and deploy for both internal and external Web and other resources. What that means is the portal not only secures access to Google Apps Premier Edition, but can help users manage their passwords to any Web site that requires one.

In September, myOneLogin became integrated with VeriSign's Identity Protection Service, which issues one-time password credentials. It adds three layers of security to Google Apps, the company says: A user-selected security image and message for mutual authentication; a browser-based password; and roaming authentication with one-time passwords for users on mobile phones. MyOneLogin integrates with Google Apps Premier Edition via SAML. A freebie version of the service is available, but so is a subscription version, offering more features, for $3 per user per month.

[3] Gbridge [4]

I know you aren't likely to yank out your corporate VPN and replace it with the peer-to-peer likes of Gbridge, but it is worth checking out all the same. It is a creative extension to Google GTalk that could be a useful tool for remote control access, or a nice low-cost VPN for your teleworkers.

Gbridge is a P2P VPN that consists of bridges that connect multiple computers via encrypted links. Gbridge lets you sync folders, share files, chat and VNC. It offers four features. DesktopShare is remote control that can even pass through your Network Address Translation. SecureShare is a file-sharing feature. AutoSync transfers large files and syncs folders. It offers upscale features like auto schedule and resume. EasyBackup lets you back up your files from one computer or Google Docs to a computer.

Gbridge supports Windows folder sharing and remote printing, and Windows Remote Desktop through the RDP protocol. Best of all is the price ... free.

[5]gStepOne [5]

gStepOne by WordWare is a wizard generator that helps you create a business process workflow that is tightly integrated with your Google Apps. Better still, it can also integrate with many other Google Services like YouTube, Picassa, Calendar, Gmail, Maps and Search. GStepOne helps you plan each step and track the progress of the task.

Once created, the Wizard lets others easily perform the workflow operating. It has applications with training, collaboration ... anytime multiple steps are needed to perform a task by multiple people. Some examples include writing contracts or proposals, creating budgets, managing travel.

Commercial workflow and business process engineering applications used to cost corporations as much a million dollars back in the day. Apps like gStepOne show how much cloud computing, and in particular, Google's cloud services, have made such projects a thing of the past. Like many of the apps on this list, this tool is free.

ProjectGoo [6]

ProjectGoo by by ManageScope is a cloud-based app that brings the collaboration features of Google Apps to Microsoft Project. While we're sure Microsoft is none-too-pleased with it, Project users should be thrilled.

Microsoft is working on its own cloud services based on Windows Live, but Windows Live is far behind Google Apps' collaboration features. It is always requiring users to log in, some of its apps quirkily prefer Internet Explorer, and so on. With this tool that bridges Microsoft Project to Google Apps, Project user don't have to wait on Microsoft to add Internet-based collaboration to their Project documents.

Project managers upload documents to Google Docs and then determine which project team members should have access to them. Once the documents are uploaded, team members can perform a variety of project management tasks with them such as distributing assignments to the team through Google Apps while maintaining data on issues and resolutions.

Project team members can view task assignments for each project, update their status, which in turns updates the project manager and appropriate MS project task. Project Goo is free but requires user registration.

Google Docs Backup [7]

What good does it do you to move to a cloud Office system if you still have to pay and host local media for archiving and backup? Google Docs Backup could be your low-cost answer. Google Docs Backup by L-Tech allows admin users of Google Apps Premier and Education Editions to download documents to another spot while maintaining the folder structure used in Docs. With Google Docs Backup, documents can be accessed even if your Internet connection goes down, shared with those who don't use Google Docs and archived for later retrieval.

What's super cool about Google Docs Backup is that, not only can you back up to local media or a networked drive, but you can also send your backups to another cloud, Amazon S3, the company says. It supports multiple formats for Google Docs expert, can schedule automated, recurring backups and admins can specify which parts of their Apps domain to backup, from all of it to a single user. And, you guessed it, Google Docs Backup is free.

CloudSave for Google Docs [8]

We've included a second backup tool in this list to give you an idea of just how sophisticated some of these Google Apps offerings have become. CloudSave by Salvair is in its second release and with the revised tool, the company has added support for the one thing every enterprise needs in an archive product, e-discovery. The latest release of the software also allows customers more flexibility in how they archive documents, and has dramatic performance improvements for archives and for document restoration using the “un-delete” functionality of the product.

CloudSave is also faster than ever, letting organizations back up documents, spreadsheets, presentations and even PDFs fairly quickly. Like others of its elk, it lets users specify which parts of the domain to back up, from full domain to individual users.

This tool isn't free, with prices that start at $25 per user, but the company does say nonprofits and schools that qualilfy for reduced fees for Google Apps can get the tool at a reasonable price.

OffiSync [9]

OffiSync is an cool little utility that lets Microsoft Office users save files to their Google Apps accounts from inside of the Office application. Click a couple of buttons and your MS Word or Excel doc is placed into your Google Docs workspace, and shared with your Google contacts. The tools offers the best of both worlds – users keep access to the richer, local Microsoft Office client but they don't have to mess with the harder-to-use and no-one-is-on-it Windows Live to collaborate. The tool also embeds Google search into Microsoft Office and lets you do fancy things with by integrating search results into your documents.

On the downside, this tool isn't yet packed with the kinds of controls an enterprise IT department would want to see when allowing its users to save apps to the clouds. Should you opt to let your users install OffSync, you would need to tack on those controls via a backup product, perhaps like CloudSave. But given the price ... free ... the productivity gains the tool provides, and the fact that your users may have already found it and downloaded on their own, OffiSync is definitely a utility IT should keep its eyes on.

OffiSync supports Microsoft Office 2003, 2007 and the tool's makers say it will support 2010. It can be used with Word, Excel and PowerPoint.

Sword ECM gadget [10]

The Sword ECM gadget is one of the rare tools on this list that isn't free (and it might be quite costly -- the company wasn't forthcoming about the price). The gadget brings a Google Apps front end to large-scale enterprise content management systems, such as EMC Documentum and IBM Filenet. Even with the nebulous pricing, given the cost of ECM, this may be one of the more affordable ways to open up Web access to these documents.

The ECM gadget lets users securely access documents from anywhere across the Web or from their smartphones even while those documents are safely maintained on premises, behind the firewall. It works in conjunction with Google's enterprise search software Google Sites. Google Sites creates a private search engine for a domain. It is typically used by companies that want their documents available to visitors from the Web. (For instance, Network World uses Google Sites to let readers search for published articles.) But with the Sword ECM gadget, case, documents remain secured away from authorized eyes.

The gadget isn't just a Web front end, though. By harnessing the power of Google's App Engine, it brings to ECM documents the kind of collaboration features they are used to having with their Google Docs, even doing fancy things, like creating data mash-ups or adding workflow, the company says.

AfterCAD Online [11] [11]

Companies that use CAD to design products or create construction plans have been for years held hostage to high-end software and expensive online collaboration portals that support specific CAD documents. Renderjam aims to change that. It offers a CAD software-as-a-service that can be used on its own, or integrated with Google Apps for document sharing. The cool thing about Renderjam is that CAD files can be seen, edited and manipulated completely through the browser, with no client software needed ... not even so much as an ActiveX or Java app.

The SaaS converts CAD docs into the company's own Webdoc format so that they become brwoser friendly. Users can upload CAD and 3D files, share and view them just like a Google Doc. Users can link CAD diagrams and models into your Google Apps, too. You can also add Google Docs alongside CAD documents in project folders.

The CAD documents are not locked inside the SaaS. You can save them to industry standard PDF or CAD file formats and share them that way, too.

AfterCAD lets users try the SaaS for free for 30 days, after which it wants you to sign up for one of its three tiers of of pricing.

Tungle [12]

Tungle is one of those applications that its users quickly say they could never live without. It allows people on Google Calendar to share scheduling and calendar data with folks on Outlook, iCal or Entourage. Scheduling between calendars does not require non-Tungle users to sign up to Tungle, either.

Tungle allows others to see your free/busy info, just as if you were all on the same calendar system, and it integrates with Gmail and Google Maps. You can attach Google Maps directions to your meeting invitations. Users say set up a no-brainer ... invitees to a cross-calendar meeting can easily understand how to confirm their choice. Tungle offers an OpenSocial extension that lets it work with social networking sites like Ning, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn. OpenSocial is a project spearheaded by Google that created a set of common APIs to let applications integrate with social sites.

Tungle is available as an iPhone or BlackBerry app (though the company hasn't yet released an Android version). Tungle is free.

Sidekick implosion: Was it sabotage?

noreply@blogger.com (Cliff Samuels Jr) — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 12:41:00 +0000

Sidekick implosion: Was it sabotage?

Insider tells blogger/author of "clueless idiots"

By John Fontana ,

The Sidekick implosion, which wiped out user data, may have been the result of sabotage, according to blogger and author Daniel Eran Dilger, who quotes "insiders" familiar with the situation.

"Sources point to longstanding management issues, a culture of 'dogfooding,' and evidence that could suggest the issue was a deliberate act of sabotage," Dilger says on his blog Roughly Drafted.

Dilger says the sabotage claim is tied to tensions inside Microsoft. His blog post outlines how decisions related to Pink, a smartphone project inside Microsoft, and Danger, a Microsoft subsidiary, led to a level of animosity within the company that may have boiled over with a deliberate takedown of Sidekick.

Dilger quotes his inside source as saying the Pink project existed before Danger was acquired and that contractual obligations delayed Danger's engineers from immediately joining Pink. When they did, the source said, "innumerable bad decisions had already been made by clueless idiots."

The source describes Microsoft as "dysfunctional," a condition that led to mismanagement of the year-old, $500 million Danger acquisition.

Dilger's source goes on to describe how improbable a scenario it is for Microsoft to attempt an upgrade to the Sidekick service, which stores a user's contacts, calendar, photos and other data, without backing up that information.

The outage has brought howls from users who apparently have no way to recover their lost data from Sidekick, a cloud service offered by T-Mobile but run on the back-end by Danger.

The source says one scenario for the problem could be that Microsoft wanted to use its own technology to run Sidekick – what it often calls "eating its own dog food" – and blew an attempt to replace Sidekick's Oracle Real Application Cluster.
Dilger says there is evidence to suggest "there was no reason for a major transition or upgrade to be occurring” because Microsoft was interested in Danger's phone expertise and not the Sidekick service. His conclusion: "intentional sabotage by a disgruntled employee."

In any other case, Dilger writes, Microsoft and T-Mobile would have discussed "mitigating circumstances, blaming bad hardware, a power failure, or some freak accident."

"This is a catastrophic failure of the worst possible kind. Like I said, I can't think of any innocent explanation for all user data to have been lost permanently, and for the service to still be down," said the source.

Thought for the Day

noreply@blogger.com (Cliff Samuels Jr) — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 12:31:00 +0000

Thought for the Day

October 9, 2009

DON’T OVERLOOK SMALL DETAILS. REMEMBER THAT THE UNIVERSE AND ALL THAT IS IN IT ARE MADE FROM TINY ATOMS.

There is an old expression that says, "If you take care of the little things, the big things will take care of themselves." It’s another way of saying that every job is composed of many small details, any one of which, if overlooked, can create big problems later. If you have trouble dealing with details-paperwork, expense accounts, and other annoying details-set aside a time during your work cycle (daily, weekly, or monthly) to deal with such unpleasant tasks. Prepare yourself mentally to deal with those tasks, and you may find that you dispense with them quickly and efficiently. You may even find that the job wasn’t nearly as unpleasant as you expected it to be.at has the greatest likelihood of success.

This positive message is brought to you by the Napoleon Hill Foundation. Visit us at http://www.naphill.org

BDPA Detroit TAC: BDPA Chapter News October 2009

noreply@blogger.com (Cliff Samuels Jr) — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 01:03:00 +0000

BDPA Detroit TAC: BDPA Chapter News October 2009

BDPA Chapter News October 2009

noreply@blogger.com (Cliff Samuels Jr) — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 00:42:00 +0000

October/2009

Networking Social Event at the (PI) Resturant & Lounge

October 16, 2009 at 6:00 PM

(food and drink specials til 7 PM)

Come mix and mingle with members and past Information Exchange Speakers at this event. All is welcome so be sure to invite someone!

Pi Resturant & Lounge

28875 Franklin Street

Southfield, MI 48034

248-208-7500

(NOTE: This event replaces our monthly Information Exchange Event for October)

BDPA-Detroit presents it's...

1st Scholarship & EducationAwards Banquet

"Retooling For a Better Tomorrow"

Keynote Speaker: Honorable Dennis Archer

November 12, 2009 at 7:00 PM

Compuware Corporation

One Campus Maritus

Detroit, MI 48226

(Free parking with purchase of ticket)

$40.00 Adult

$30.00 Student Rate (ID Required)

2 Adult tickets for $70.00

For more information visit www.bdpa-detroit.org

Job Openings at Timage Technology Solutions

Timage Technology Solutions have openings for the following positions:

Network Architect

Storage Area Network Engineer

IT Data Librarian

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

IT Data Librarian

The Data Librarian is a dedicated, single point of contact to ensure all IT Infrastructure documentation is well organized and follows established means

and methods through industry accepted standards. The Data Librarian will also ensure that all documentation is easily searchable, is properly secured

and accessible via role based access policies. ITIL certification is highly desired, as well as SharePoint experience.

Network Architect

The Network Architect is responsible for providing third-level engineering support of a wide area network (WAN) consisting of over 70 networked locations across southeastern Michigan. Experience and certification with Nortel platforms is highly desired, as well as experience supporting QoS, Multicasting, VOIP, & IP Video.

Storage Area Network (SAN) Engineer

As a SAN Engineer, you will plan, design, and analyze storage infrastructure, while ensuring high levels of data quality and availability. You will be responsible for capacity planning, backup and restore process design, performance analysis

,and developing data disaster recovery plans. You will develop, implement, and oversee policies and procedures to ensure consistent storage

provisioning and uptime. A background in EMC storage products is a must, as well as working knowledge of SAN, NAS, DAS, RAID, SCSI,

and Fibre Channel technologies.

All resumes and inquiries should be sent to

Timage

Hacker leaks thousands of Hotmail passwords

noreply@blogger.com (Cliff Samuels Jr) — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 17:59:00 +0000

Hacker leaks thousands of Hotmail passwords, says site
Posts more than 10,000 passwords, claims Neowin.net; Microsoft reportedly investigating
By Gregg Keizer

More than 10,000 usernames and passwords for Windows Live Hotmail accounts were leaked online late last week, according to a report by Neowin.net , which claimed that they were posted by an anonymous user on pastebin.com last Thursday.

The post has since been taken down.

Neowin reported that it had seen part of the list. "Neowin has seen part of the list posted and can confirm the accounts are genuine and most appear to be based in Europe," said the site. "The list details over 10,000 accounts starting from A through to B, suggesting there could be additional lists."

Hotmail usernames and passwords are often used for more than logging into Microsoft 's online e-mail service, however. Many people log onto a wide range of Microsoft's online properties -- including the trial version of the company's Web-based Office applications , the Connect beta test site and the Skydrive online storage service -- with their Hotmail passwords.

It was unknown how the usernames and passwords were obtained, but Neowin speculated that they were the result of either a hack of Hotmail or a massive phishing attack that had tricked users into divulging their log-on information.

Accounts with domains of @hotmail.com, @msn.com and @live.com were included in the list.

Microsoft representatives in the U.S. were not immediately able to confirm Neowin's account, or answer questions, including how the usernames and passwords were acquired. The BBC , however, reported early Monday that Microsoft U.K. is aware of the report that account information had been available on the Web, and said it's "actively investigating the situation and will take appropriate steps as rapidly as possible."

If Neowin's account is accurate, the Hotmail hack or phishing attack would be one of the largest suffered by a Web-based e-mail service.

Last year, a Tennessee college student was accused of breaking into former Alaska governor Sarah Palin's Yahoo Mail account in the run-up to the U.S. presidential election. Palin, the Republican vice presidential nominee at the time, lost control of her personal account when someone identified only as "rubico" reset her password after guessing answers to several security questions.

David Kernell was charged with a single count of accessing a computer without authorization by a federal grand jury last October. Kernell's case is ongoing.

Shortly after the Palin account hijack, Computerworld confirmed that the automated password-reset mechanisms used by Hotmail, Yahoo Mail and Google 's Gmail could be abused by anyone who knew an account's username and could answer a single security question.

Help the Insurance Companies!!!

noreply@blogger.com (Cliff Samuels Jr) — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 16:49:00 +0000

Protect Insurance Companies PSA from Will Ferrell

How to turn a spare Linux machine into a media server

noreply@blogger.com (Cliff Samuels Jr) — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 16:40:00 +0000

How to turn a spare Linux machine into a media server

Your home hub awaits

By Tech Staff

When MediaTomb is running, you can add files and folders to your media collection through a web interface

Linux is brilliant at serving files. It's this ability that keeps the enterprise world turning to Linux for its heavy lifting jobs and that keeps the world Googling 24/7.

But it's just as good at serving files from a computer tucked away under the stairs or stuck in the loft, and a server in your house is now becoming an essential accessory.

Mobile phones, games consoles and even televisions are rapidly developing the ability to read, display and play files held on a media centre PC, and Linux is the perfect free software solution. All you need is a relatively low-powered PC, a decent amount of storage and somewhere safe to hide it.

1. Install the software

We've chosen to use Ubuntu Server Edition for two reasons. First, it's the same distribution that most people know and love, only optimised for use on a server. Second, you still have access to exactly the same packages and repositories as you do with with the desktop version, which makes installing and using software easy.

Put the disc into the machine you want to use as the server and select your language followed by 'Install Ubuntu Server'. Unlike the desktop version, there's no graphical installer. Instead you'll need to choose your configuration settings from the pages of options that appear throughout the installer.

Don't let this put you off; there aren't any questions that can't easily be answered, and the installation is effectively no different from a standard desktop installation.

The first question asks you again for the language, the second for your location and the third for your keyboard layout. After a brief pause, you'll be asked for a hostname. You might want to change this to something like 'mediaserver', rather than the default 'ubuntu' to avoid confusion with any other Ubuntu installations you may have running on the same network.

2. Partition the disk

The next installation step is disk configuration. This is a much more important consideration for a media server than it is for a standard desktop installation, because of the sheer volume of files that you'll be storing on it.

The most convenient solution is to use an old disk of around 10GB (or less) for the Linux installation and a high capacity drive for your media content. You can then select 'Guided – Use Entire Disk' on the installation page, then select the disk to install to and give Ubuntu complete control over how it creates the installation. Your media storage disk can be configured later.

PARTITION YOUR DRIVE: If you create a separate root partition, you'll be able to update your system without worrying about your files

The second-best option is to create two partitions on a single drive, using the smaller partition for the root file system and the other partition for your data. This way, you can update the root partition if you need to, or easily back up your data partition without infecting it with system files.

After skipping through the partition section you'll be asked for your real name, username and password. You should give this a little more thought than with the desktop, as it's likely that your server will be on all the time and accessible from the internet, so a secure username/password combination is vital.

Press Continue to skip the HTTP proxy installation, and choose to install security updates automatically when asked. Finally, don't select any of the default server packages unless you want to enable SSH for remote administration, then click on Continue to install the system.

3. Configure MediaTomb

We're now only a couple of steps away from completion. When your machine restarts after installing all the main packages, you need to log in and type sudo apt-get install mediatomb into a terminal. This will grab the media-streaming software and install it on your system.

All you need to now is type mediatomb to run the server. Watch the output, because you should see something like the following:

2009-07-16 15:20:52 INFO: MediaTomb Web UI can be reached by following this link: 2009-07-16 15:20:52 INFO: http://192.168.1.89:49152/

This is the port and the IP address for the server, and you should now be able to point a web browser on the same network at this address and use the simple user interface to add the files and folders that contain your various bits of media.

After a few moments, the media should appear on any UPnP streaming client, such as those on a Playstation 3 and XBox 360.

Motivational Monday

noreply@blogger.com (Cliff Samuels Jr) — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 12:35:00 +0000

Thought for the Day

VICTORY IS ALWAYS POSSIBLE FOR THE PERSON WHO REFUSES TO STOP FIGHTING.

Julius Caesar had long wished to capture the British. He sailed to the British Isles, quietly unloaded his troops and supplies, and gave the order to burn the ships. He then called all of his men together and said, "Now it is win or perish. We have no choice." With that single order, he guaranteed the success of his campaign. He knew that people who have no other alternative-or will accept no other-always win. If you find yourself in a situation where victory seems impossible, you may benefit your cause by developing an alternate course of action. If your objective won’t yield to a full frontal assault, try an oblique approach. There are very few problems in life that are impossible to solve, and few obstacles that will not eventually give way to a determined, motivated person with a plan that is flexible enough to cope with changing condition.

This positive message is brought to you by the Napoleon Hill Foundation. Visit us at http://www.naphill.org.

Motivational Moment

noreply@blogger.com (Cliff Samuels Jr) — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 12:44:00 +0000

FROM NIGHTINGALE.COM

"When you squeeze an orange, orange juice comes
out - because that's what's inside. When you are
squeezed, what comes out is what is inside."

— Wayne Dyer: Self-development author and speaker

How Cuts to Maintenance Costs Can Cause On-the-Job Stress

noreply@blogger.com (Cliff Samuels Jr) — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 13:16:00 +0000

How Cuts to Maintenance Costs Can Cause On-the-Job Stress

By: Don E. Sears

Trimming or even eliminating maintenance costs with hardware and software vendors during a recession is a normal trend. But what's the effect on IT staffs? It can create a negative work environment that is a breeding ground for poor morale and angry technicians and, worst of all, alienate those you need most when times are good: the IT staff.

There isn't an area of technology management where cost is not a factor.

For many organizations, maintenance costs are a necessary evil, especially when certain customer-facing systems are crucial to business. But eliminating industry-standard 4-hour turnaround times in most hardware maintenance contracts is a risk many CFOs and some CIOs are willing to take during a recession. If it's not considered crucial, you can wager that someone in the board room is looking for ways to cut it out completely—or at least cut it down.

Sometimes, though, cost-cutting comes back to bite you on the back side when internal systems move at a snail's pace and worker productivity is detrimentally affected. Here's an example from the Computerworld article "Slashing IT maintenance budgets: Sign of the times":

"A network accelerator, which compresses traffic to get more speed over the network, recently broke at the sporting-goods firm (a large Midwestern sporting goods manufacturer). IT couldn't call the vendor to fix it, the engineer said, because there's no longer a maintenance contract on it. So his company began looking for a used replacement on eBay. 'We lived without the extra speed while it was being replaced; everything just slowed down,' he said. The device has since been replaced.

"For their part, end users 'were noticing the cuts,' he said. 'The network slowed down ... and people don't like that.' That caused new trouble tickets to be generated due to speed complaints, which overloaded the IT staff with even more work.

"'They're generally OK when they're told it's going to hurt,' he said of cuts and their effects on company workers. 'Then when it hurts, they don't like it. We spent some time in meetings where we had to remind people that they agreed to this' when the cuts were looming. 'Everyone wants a fuel-efficient car, but they still want it to go fast.'"

It's hard to argue with the logic that says companies need to trim at every level of an organization. The caveat is understanding what is crucial to revenue and what is crucial to supporting revenue. Sometimes the two are very much in competition as they are seen as customer-centric versus an internal process. Many of those internal processes may not make the company money, but rather, may keep the company from losing revenue as it relates to rolling out a new product, of answering a client need or allowing a development team to work efficiently while on a key project. Understanding how to best balance the performance of everything (worker productivity, revenue, project efficiency, systems, etc.) is complex.

Having some built-in hardware and software failover capabilities and redundancies should help. But sometimes, things completely fail or die, and you are simply going to need to call in a vendor, and without a current maintenance contract, the company will be charged generally exorbitant hourly rates to fix. It's a tough situation.

Another issue is that maintenance costs themselves, while similar to insurance policies, are very high in terms of monthly costs and can be difficult to negotiate when the economy is good. Recessions change that a bit.

From the same article:

"'Vendors have been lobbying us really hard' to reinstitute the maintenance contracts, 'giving us discounts, and are starting to soften policies and prices to try to get us back.' In the future, maintenance contracts will once again become the norm in his company as new gear is purchased, he [the IT worker from the sporting goods firm] believes. 'For the old stuff that's already in place, [though,] I don't see it coming back.'"

Drudge, other sites flooded with malicious ads

noreply@blogger.com (Cliff Samuels Jr) — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 12:42:00 +0000

Drudge, other sites flooded with malicious ads

Horoscope.com and Lyrics.com were also affected

By Robert McMillan

Criminals flooded several online ad networks with malicious advertisements over the weekend, causing popular Web sites such as the Drudge Report, Horoscope.com and Lyrics.com to inadvertently attack their readers, a security company said Wednesday.

The trouble started on Saturday, when the criminals somehow placed the malicious ads on networks managed by Google's DoubleClick, as well as two others: YieldManager and ValueClick's Fastclick network, according to Mary Landesman, a senior security researcher with ScanSafe.

The attack comes just a week after the New York Times Web site was tricked into displaying a deceptive 'scareware' advertisement for fake antivirus software from scammers pretending to be ad buyers with Vonage, an Internet telephony company.

Instead of trying to trick Web surfers into buying bogus software, these ads attacked.

They would pop up a nearly invisible window in the victim's browser that contained a maliciously encoded pdf document, which included attack code that placed a variant of the Win32/Alureon Trojan horse program on the victim's computer. Sometimes, the ads would also try to exploit a previously patched flaw in Microsoft's DirectShow software, Landesman said.

"The user would have seen a very brief opening of a blank pdf window and it would be at the bottom portion of their screen," she said. The Alureon Trojan is known to download additional malware and often hijack victims' search results, she said.

The pdf attacks apparently only affected victims with out-of-date versions of Adobe's Reader or Acrobat software, she added.

Between Saturday and Monday, the ads accounted for 11 percent of all Web pages blocked by ScanSafe's Web filtering software, a sign that many people were being presented with the malicious ads. And because the pdf pages were modified slightly every time they were displayed, most antivirus products didn't detect them.

In tests, ScanSafe found that only 3 out of 41 antivirus vendors detected the malware.

"To be honest, they were pretty clever in the way they carried this out," Landesman said. "They managed to infiltrate sites that enjoy very good traffic and they were able to use a mechanism for creating this pdf that caused it to be nearly completely undetected."

This is not the first time Google's DoubleClick has been associated with this type of malicious advertising. Earlier this year criminals placed similar ads on the home page of technology trade magazine eWeek, whose ads were managed by DoubleClick.

noreply@blogger.com (Cliff Samuels Jr) — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 12:36:00 +0000

Signs Your Job Is in Danger: A Job-Loss Guide
By Ric Edelman

Here’s my special report for dealing with potential unemployment. You’ll learn what the warning signs are; how to prepare for a layoff; what to do if you lose your job; and if starting a business is right for you.

No one wants to be blindsided by bad news, especially when that news means you don’t have a job anymore. If you’re worried about job security, keep your eyes and ears open for the following signs:

Your employer is facing financial trouble.

Pay attention to the company’s financial targets and whether your company is meeting them. Declining profit margins, revenues, or stock prices are potential indicators of a problem. If your firm is acquired, remember that acquisitions often mean layoffs as the merged firm eliminates redundancies.

A new emphasis has been placed on cost cutting, including routine expenses.

Have training and travel budgets been cut, or office supplies not ordered? Worse yet, have staff members been asked to take a pay cut? It is prudent for companies to cut back, but be aware that when easy costs have been eliminated, the next way for companies to reduce expenses is to reduce payroll.

People are treating you differently — and not in a good way.

Your boss won’t look you in the eye, your workload has been reduced, or you’re not being included in new projects or important meetings. Being asked to cross-train co-workers is also a bad sign.

A hiring freeze is in effect.

Even if the company hasn’t instituted an official hiring freeze, pay attention to whether new positions are being advertised or filled. If HR staff members seem really busy despite a hiring freeze, that’s not good. They could be gearing up for layoffs.

Other friends in the industry are losing their jobs.

If many of your friends with similar positions in similar industries have lost their jobs, maybe you should be worried about yours, too.

The rumor mill is in overdrive and all the higher-ups are busy in closed-door meetings.

Office gossip isn’t nice, but it can serve a purpose at times. If you’re hearing rumblings of potential layoffs, don’t ignore them, especially if you’re seeing other signs.

How to Prepare for a Layoff

Prepare your family.
Discuss the family’s finances with your spouse and kids — anyone old enough to understand the conversation — and let them know a change in lifestyle might be needed. Try to make it a positive: Turn cost-cutting into a game and see who can come up with the most ideas to save money. Alter current practices — borrow DVDs from the library instead of going to the movies or subscribing to cable TV. Talk often and openly so each member of the family can contribute and feel like a part of the solution. Open communication also lets family members provide emotional support when one person gets upset.

Increase your cash reserves.
Start living as though you’ve already been laid off. Take the newfound cash and bank it. Aim for at least a year’s worth of living expenses — and 24 to 36 months’ worth is even better.

Examine your credit.
Apply for new lines of credit — both home equity loans and credit cards. Do it now, while you still have an income. If you have credit card debt, try to lower your rates now.

Use your health insurance while you still have it.
That means going to the doctor or dentist if you’re due for an exam. Have treatments — including surgery — that you have been putting off. Tell your doctor that you might lose your job, so he or she will agree to give you a 90- or 180-day supply of prescription medication before you lose your coverage. After you lose your job, you may have to pay for your own insurance for a long time, so be sure to budget for those premiums.

Make yourself more valuable.
Take on more responsibilities at work to show the company your true worth. Keep a positive attitude even if you’re feeling lousy. And — whatever you do — don’t act as though you’re too important to be laid off. Everyone is fair game — even CEOs.

Continue to fund your 401(k) plan.
But never borrow from it. If you’ve made the huge mistake of borrowing from your plan, repay that money immediately, even if you must borrow the money elsewhere. If you do get laid off, you’ll have 30 to 90 days to pay it back or face taxes and IRS penalties on the unpaid balance.

Plan to negotiate severance.
Since you suspect it’s coming, take the time to research what a fair severance package would be and determine how you will negotiate for it. Start high, based on your experience and years of service, and be willing to compromise.

Postpone nonessential spending.
If you have a vacation, renovation, or other nonessential expense planned, cancel it.

Keep an eye out for other opportunities.
Refresh your resume and develop your network. Start the job hunt.

Remember that you are not your job.
People lose jobs all the time. While a job loss is stressful, it shouldn’t feel like a death in the family. Don’t become too emotionally attached to the company you work for, and don’t link your self-esteem to your job. Business is business. Your new job is getting your next job.

What to Do If You Lose Your Job

There’s an old joke about the difference between recession and depression: A recession is when your neighbor loses his job, and a depression is when you lose yours. Unfortunately, there’s nothing funny about getting laid off. If that’s happened to you, these tips can help you.

1. File for unemployment benefits.
Unemployment insurance benefits are paid to eligible employees who, through no fault of their own, lose their jobs. Each state sets its own benefit amounts, eligibility requirements, and benefit length. (Most states offer benefits for up to 26 weeks, though many have recently extended benefits for several more weeks.) To apply, contact an office of your state unemployment agency. It generally takes two weeks for benefit payments to begin, the first being a “waiting week,” which is not reimbursed, and the second being the time lag between eligibility for the program and actual payment of the first benefit.

2. Examine your finances.
Let your financial planner know you’ve been laid off so he or she can help you evaluate your situation. First, identify your sources of income, including severance, unemployment benefits, and cash reserves. Your planner can also show you how to generate income from your investments to reduce any gaps between your income and your expenses. And you don’t need us to tell you to reduce spending, right?

3. Evaluate your health insurance coverage.
Find out how long your former employer will maintain your coverage. See if your spouse has a plan you can join, and explore buying an individual policy. If you worked for a company with 20 or more employees, you’re eligible for COBRA, a law that ensures you can continue coverage for 18 months, but you must pay for it, and it’s expensive. Thanks to one of President Barack Obama’s economic stimulus programs, the federal government now covers 65% of COBRA premiums for nine months, and this benefit helps those laid off as long ago as last September. To learn more about COBRA, contact your planner or visit
http://www.dol.gov/ebsa/cobra.html.

4. Transfer the money in your employer’s retirement plan to an IRA.
If your employer is experiencing financial trouble, get your money out of its retirement plan. Most employer plans have limited investment choices, so you can likely build a better portfolio — and secure greater ease of access to your funds — by moving the money to an IRA. Done correctly, there should be no fees or taxes for doing so.

5. Follow up on employer termination benefits, including references.
Losing your job is traumatic, and you may not have paid much attention when you were told about all the benefits available to you. Go back to your employer for a complete list, which often includes career counseling, job placement assistance, and references.

6. Realize that your new job is to get a new job.
No matter how generous your severance package, it is finite. That means you must start looking for work immediately. Update your resume. Tell everyone you know that you are looking for employment. (Don’t be embarrassed that you lost your job — nearly one in 10 Americans is out of work.) Your search might take time, so use the eight hours of free time you now have each day to search for your new job.

7. Consider a new career.
Losing a job is an opportunity to move to the career you’ve always wanted. Go beyond your field and consider jobs that can exploit your skills. Talk with friends and family about the possibilities — they know your strengths — and write a resume targeting those fields.
Consider hiring a career coach to help you.

8. Know when to lower your expectations.
If you’re not having luck with your search, you may need to compromise. Create a series of drop-dead dates: one for when you will settle for less than your dream job; a date for when you will lower your salary expectations; and a date for when you will accept any position so you don’t run out of money. It probably won’t come to that, but you’ll feel a little better knowing you have a plan.

9. Enjoy your time off.
Consider yourself on a forced vacation. You have a guilt-free opportunity to spend more time with your family, recharge your batteries, and support the community through volunteering. When an interviewer asks you what you’ve been doing since you lost your job, he or she will be impressed with your outlook and your positive attitude.

Feeling embarrassed about being a ‘government welfare’ recipient? Good!

That attitude will help spur you to find work quickly. But in this economy, losing a job and finding the next one can both be beyond your control, so don’t feel that being out of work constitutes personal failure on your part. And remember that your employer has paid unemployment taxes for just this reason. Pride matters, though, so if you don’t need the money, it’s equally fine not to take it.

Is Starting a Business Right for You?

Frustrated job seekers often fantasize about starting their own business. The opportunity to be the boss, succeeding or failing by their own talents, is a powerful draw.

But the truth is that few are meant to be entrepreneurs. At least one-third of new businesses do not survive past two years, and 56% don’t make it past five years, according to the Small Business Administration.

The Bureau of Labor suggests that anyone looking into going into business for him- or herself should ask the following questions:

* Will becoming self-employed meet my career goals?
* Am I willing to work long hours each day?
* Do I have skills in a profession, trade, or hobby that can be converted into a business?
* Does my idea for a business effectively use my skills and abilities?
* Am I a good planner and organizer?
* Can I make my own decisions?
* Am I willing to postpone my plans in order to get more education, if necessary?
* Does my family support my endeavor?
* Can I afford the financial and emotional risks if the business fails?

Starting a business is risky. For starters, you need capital because it may be years before you start producing revenue and enjoying profits. In the meantime, you’ll spend hours developing your business — many of them on mundane tasks like bookkeeping, cleaning up, and paperwork.

So if you’re turning your photography hobby into a business, know that you’ll do a lot more than take pictures: You’ll market to customers, schedule events, and bill clients. You’ll have to pay for your own insurance, you’ll enjoy no paid vacations or time off, and you’ll spend lots of money on attorneys and accountants. And instead of getting rid of your boss, or being your own boss, you’ll now have dozens, even hundreds, of bosses: Every customer is your boss, and you’ll do what they all say.

Still interested? Independence comes with a price. You’ll have to dedicate more time to your business than you did to your old job. Your family must be on board, since they’ll have to make sacrifices, too — you’ll see less of them and it may be a while before you make any money. You’ll have to be decisive; success (or failure) hinges on your decisions. If you decide to start a business with a partner, you’ll have to make sure you’re in sync and have plans for breaking up, which is inevitable (if only due to death or retirement).

This is not to discourage you from opening a business. Entrepreneurship is part of the American dream for many — myself included. Just be sure to go in with your eyes open and your sleeves rolled up.
If you’re convinced that you’re about to lose your job and you’re unlikely to be compensated for unused vacation or personal days, take those days off now — and use that time to start seeking other work.

Motivational Monday

noreply@blogger.com (Cliff Samuels Jr) — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 12:29:00 +0000

Thought for the Day

September 21, 2009

THOSE WHO WILL NOT TAKE A CHANCE SELDOM HAVE ONE THRUST UPON THEM.

Success always involves risk. You must take a chance by investing your time, money, and effort. It pays to be thoughtful and deliberate in your analyses of opportunities, but don’t let timidity hold you back. Because you have worked hard to develop those things you must risk, it is natural for you to place a high value on them. But what use are they if you do not put them to use? You will recognize opportunity only to the extent that you are willing to consider risking your time, money, and effort. Being confident gives you the courage to face risk and act when opportunity arises. No one on earth is going to force success upon you; you will find it only to the degree that you actively seek it out.