Lexmark X4650 wireless all-in-one printer – This bad boy costs a measly $59 at your local Walmart Store. Need to ship it instead? It ships to most places for under $1.

The Beatles: Rock Band Value Edition – This system goes for $159.99 most places, but Amazon is offering it for $99, including shipping! It’s available for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and Wii. This value edition included the game itself, natch, along with the guitar, drum set, and microphone. $99 is a steal for this package, especially around the holidays.

Top notch GPS for a little over $100 – It’s difficult to find a decent GPS without shelling out at least $300 or so. But right now, TigerDirect is offering the Magellan 5310 GPS for $129.99.  If you’ve been waiting to strike a bargain on one of these for yourself (or maybe for your kids) this will most likely be the deal of the season.

Netbook - PCUSA is offering a blue, Samsung NC 10-13GB Netbook for $299. With a 2.8 pound laptop and 6 Cell Lithium battery, this little guy will offer you the perfect personal escape if you’ve had all you can take of Aunt Ida’s crazy stories over Holiday break.

External hard drives – ComputerGeeks.com always offers deep discounts on computers, cameras, and more. They’re now offering great deals on many external hard drives – great for backing up your personal computer at home, and storing your music and video files on. They also run a Daily Deal at the top of their homepage. Today it’s a wireless Dell mouse for $7.99.

Happy Holiday Season! Now, get shopping!

SS

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Stress is physical, mental, or emotional strain or tension,
or a situation, occurrence, or factor causing this.

Holidays are almost upon us. Businesses are nearing end of year processes. Traveling, school vacations, winter storms, and all of the other causes of stress in our lives are fast approaching!

There are several different kinds of stress; some are positive, and some are negative. Any sort of change in your life can be considered stress; winning the lottery or losing your job are both examples. Chronic negative stress can lead to burnout and deterioration in health by causing chemical changes in your brain and putting your nervous system into overdrive.

So, what can you do to minimize your stress levels?

Learning to recognize when you’re stressed may sometimes be difficult; learning to take a step back and do something about it can be even harder. It’s time for some stress management. A proper diet, a full night’s sleep, getting enough exercise, and setting aside time to relax are all ways to manage your stress. Caffeine may get you going in the day but too much of it can also stress you out! Other more active methods include yoga, meditation, writing in a journal, and time management to prevent the stress in the first place. Spend some time outdoors or grab a good book; just saying “no” sometimes when you’re feeling overwhelmed can do a world of good.

Just remember… “this too shall pass.”

-Kristin Mott

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Apple is trying to rally up support from various TV networks; they hope to round up enough networks to allow themselves to introduce a monthly subscription service that would deliver TV programs via iTunes multimedia software. Apple’s new TV pitch will allow its users to have cable access without any hardware or boxes, it simply will be an extension of its already popular iTunes software, which last year had a reported 65+ million user accounts.

Nothing has been finalized yet, but there have been rumblings that Disney will be the first big network to jump on board with Apple on this idea. Apple has not commented on this suspicion, but the past has proved that Disney is usually willing to experiment with Apple. Also, Apple CEO Steve Jobs is Disney’s largest single shareholder to date.

Apple’s latest idea has both intrigued networks and posed some serious concerns. Of course it would be great to have additional revenue, but networks would also chance sabotaging existing relationships with their current cable networks, like Comcast. Losing advertising dollars and the potential for show ratings to become skewed are two more concerns that are floating around networks.

Apple will not reveal a release date for this service yet, and they know that there are still some things to workout internally. Stay tuned because their TV subscription service may not be far from its release. Maybe you will be able to chop down your cable in 2010.

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Please consider yourself warned: Viruses and malware have such a huge negative effect on your productivity, and have real costs associated with troubleshooting, rebuilding, or replacing computers.

5 ways you can get viruses, spyware, malware, etc. from visiting the Internet:  How to protect yourself with common sense, and some general tips to tighten up your overall Internet security plan:

1.  Peer to peer networking sites

• Bit torrent, Kazaa, Limewire, and Sharezaa shouldn’t be used.
• Loaded with viruses and misleading content.
• Also, they have very little relevance in the business environment.

2.  Social Networking sites: Facebook and Myspace

• Automated malware attacks hit Facebook and Myspace constantly.
• Don’t blindly trust Facebook and Myspace as they are a great breeding ground for viruses and social engineering hacks.
• Be wary of fake profiles that send you messages asking you to click on them to “view videos” which prompts you to install “special software” to view them.
• There are Facebook applications that contain malware. Especially some that can tell you who has been visiting your profile.
• Unknown links can either download a virus right away or say something like your video player Adobe Flash is out of date and needs to be updated and that’s when the virus downloads.

3.  Web browsing

• Be careful about how far down a path you go, clicking on link after link
• Don’t download “smileys” or special “emoticons”
• A lot of websites have been set up by hackers to try to trick you to download things on your computer when you go to them
• Depending on your browser settings things may get automatically downloaded or it may ask you to install an update or active x control or something like that
• When possible, make sure you have the most updated web browser out there (not always possible when you have specific business software that needs an older browser like IE6 or 7)

4.  IM

• Don’t click on links in an IM from someone you don’t know
• If it is from a friend ask them if it is OK to open or try a different method to send it
• Don’t open attachments unless you know who it’s from and you are expecting it
• Don’t download applets when it asks you to view pictures, etc.

5.  Email

• Don’t click on a link if you don’t know the sender and the email is unsolicited.
• Don’t click on links from services you don’t recognize that want you to update your account info or verify membership or something.
• Don’t click on a link if you know the sender but the message is strange.
• Don’t open attachments unless you know who it’s from and you are expecting it
• Never open .exe or .scr attachments. Typical attachments are doc, xls, pdf, jpg.

General tips and friendly reminders:

• You have a lot of control over the safety and security of your computer
• Most viruses and malware need your help in getting installed
• Remember the “Trojan Horse” story?  That’s why some viruses are referred to as “Trojans.”
• Don’t believe everything you see in pop-up windows, especially offers to:
  • Optimize your computer
  • Protect your computer
  • Your computer is infected and you need Win Anti Spyware to clean it
  • These things will always download malware into your computer that will make it unusable, steal your information, use your computer to send spam, etc.
  • Hitting “cancel” on some popup windows is not enough. Sometimes the way it is worded will install the program if you click cancel.
  • Close it using red X in the top left corner of the window or going to Windows task manager (Ctrl-alt-del and click “Task Manager).

If you are unsure about doing something, call Everon right away. It is better to attempt to stop something before it gets into your computer than to have us try to remove it or have to rebuild your computer. The old saying “It’s better to be safe than sorry,” definitely should apply to computer usage, especially when you’re on the Internet.

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You can have all of your favorite and most commonly used pages open in tabs each time you open a browser very easily.

1. Open Firefox and all of the tabs that you wish to have automatically opened when you open the browser
2. Click “Tools”, then click “Options”
3. Within “Options,” select the main option, next select “Use Current Pages” button.
4. Click “OK”

The next time you open your Firefox browser all of those tabs will be automatically opened for you!

Want a customized home page made just for you?

Use iGoogle! A service from Google that lets users have all reverent information matching their interests on their home page. You can customize this page, setting your account to display, news, weather, your Facebook account and more!

1. Login and open your main Google page. In the top right of the window, you will see an iGoogle link. Click that.
2. Simply custom select the options you’d like, and create your own homepage for your account. Click “Save”

Now each time you log into your google account, your favorite information will be right there at your fingertips without your even having to type a single thing to get there.

SS

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Today I read an interesting 8 page special report on Leveraging Social Media to Boost E-Commerce Holiday sales. If you are planning on selling your products and/or services online this holiday season, I urge you to take take a a look at the following article by TechNewsWorld. You can access it here.

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Those of you who own or are familiar with Kindles know that you can not lend digital books to other Kindle owners. This is one flaw that B&N plans on capitalizing on with their own e-reader, as they hope to make e-book lending a centerpiece of their device. This is still currently not an option yet, as publishers are having discussions with the bookstore on how many book loans a year publishers will be allowing. B&N feels that this “lend to a friend” capability will greatly help them in marketing the device, especially for members of its own book clubs program.

Only time will tell in regards to when, and to what degree, e-readers will be able to lend books to one another. Also, it is of no surprise that Google also plans to breach into the e-book market in the near future. I’m sure that they will have their own tricks up their sleeve for their version too.

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Virgin America has come up with a FREE answer to your problems…

Thanks to Google, they will be offering free Wi-Fi service to all passengers between November 10, 2009 and January 15, 2010.  Virgin America’s Gogo Wi-Fi service was rolled out this past May, but is typically only accessible for a free that is determined by the length of your flight.  For the holidays, it’s a free gift, compliments of Virgin and Google.

Virgin America’s VP of marketing says that they’ve had an overwhelming positive response from travelers in regards to having an in-flight internet option. They are hoping that this holiday offer entices travelers to take advantage of this perk.

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By turning on Got the Wrong Bob? Gmail will start to pay attention to your email trends — it will actually check to see if you meant to email Bob Smith rather than Bob Craft based on the people you email most often, and also email most often as a collective group. Even more, this feature will even suggest people that you might want to include in particular group emails (Don’t forget Bob!)

Activate Got the Wrong Bob? in your own gmail account by going to the Labs tab under Gmail settings, or click on the “New Tabs!” on the top right hand side of your main email screen once logged in.

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Samasource has built a unique business model around the idea that there are some necessary computer projects that must be done, yet they’ve been deemed too small for Americans workers to spend their workdays carrying out. However, these jobs are the perfect size to be completed successfully remotely, and that’s where the Third World refugees come in and put their talents to work! While some may suspect this type of work is actually exploitation of the refugees, experts have confirmed that it’s exactly this type of work — work that can pay 3x or more than any other available jobs in these areas — that will begin to turn around the extremely impoverished conditions in some of these desolate countries around the world.

Experts say that Samasource is not displacing work opportunities for Americans, but expanding what American entrepreneurs can do with a limited budget. One example of a typical project that Samasource workers have done for a client who is a solar panels repairman: Workers soured satellite photos of American cities for houses with solar set-ups in order to generate sales leads.

Just to put this into perspective: The best possible work that’s available to most in the refugee camp is pounding rock in a quarry. What does it pay?  A mere 50 cents a day, if that. Not to mention that the camp has over 300 thousand people living on top of each other, and fighting for the little available work against one another. On the other hand, Samasource’s clients pay $2 an hour to these workers. From a quality of life perspective, Samasource has a lot to offer, and is committed to offering even more to these workers in the near future, as their number one goal is increasing wages!

With all the negativity in the news today, it’s nice to stop and appreciate  organizations like this who are looking to better the living conditions for less fortunate people, and also improve the overall state of our current world.  Please visit Samasource’s website for more information on this great nonprofit organization, or to “give work” now to Samasource workers.

Stephanie Spino
Marketing Manager
Everon Technology Services, LLC

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