PSA Station
Business, Marketing, and New Technology
Worst Office Ever Contest
Jan 24th
This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Contest Factory for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.
Is your office horrible? Out of date? Old technology? Too small? Too crowded? Impossible?
Well, here’s your chance for a do-over! There’s a contest going on for the worst office ever.
It’s called the Pimp My Cube Contest and is being done by the Contest Factory. All you have to do is upload a video of your cube or office space and talk about all the reasons why it is so horrible. Let them know why it is important that you need your work space redone.
Once you get your video up, send the link to your friends and family so they can vote for it. You’ll get sweepstakes points in 4 ways- for registering, for voting, for commenting, and for inviting others to register for the contest. If the judges (and other voters) decide you have the best (or worst) video and compelling reasons to change it, you could win a total office makeover!
You could win the grand prize with a value of $1200! They will come and upgrade your office with one of these choices:
o New high end computer system
o New Desk, Chair and Decorations
o New Entertainment Package with high end stereo, espresso machine etc.
There is a second prize that will be chosen at random for $200. Not bad for just making a video of your crappy office space. Make sure to be witty and funny and crazy in your video, cause people love that; the wackier the better! But you’d better do it soon, as the contest period is almost over. It closes on January 31.
Just visit the Pimp My Cube site, register for the contest, and upload your videos to enter. And then, after the video is approved, be sure to have all your friends and family support you by voting for it. Put it on Facebook, and in your blog. Tell the world. It just might be worth a new office makeover for you!
Quality Travel Tripod
Jan 23rd
Did you get any great presents for Christmas? I did. I got a new camera. Although I’m still getting used to all the new features, already I love it! It is the smallest camera I’ve ever had, even though it does a zillion things my older cameras never could. My kids picked it out very carefully with my needs in mind, which are not overly technical, and lean more towards the it-must-be-easy-to-use category.
It has fun features that let me take pictures that don’t even look like pictures, they look like pencil or pen drawings. One setting is called “punk”- it’s kinda strange, and I probably won’t be using that one very much. But other settings are more than useful. Of course, the camera takes video, and one setting actually stabilizes the picture! So if I’m a little shaky, or perhaps there is a wind, the video still comes out great- or at least better than it would otherwise.
I like to take pictures of landscapes and waterfalls. So, I have to travel around to get shots. Sometimes, I’m hiking a bit to get where I need to go, and I have to take my camera with me. The kind of videos that I need of waterfalls require a bit of time, and there is no way I can hold the camera still for that long, so I also have to take a tripod with me. This is where a good travel tripod comes in handy. I used to think that just anything that would hold the camera up would do, until a friend showed me his Benro. I guess you just don’t know what you’re missing until someone shows you. Anyway, I obviously needed a better tripod, so I spent some time cruising around the net, visiting sites with camera reviews and camera equipment reviews, and finally decided that the one I wanted was, indeed, from Benrousa.com because of the obvious quality.
If you have a need for a travel tripod, I suggest you check them out- you may not even know what you’re missing!
Storing Extra Data Efficiently
Jan 6th
OK, you have a business. You’re using the net. You’re growing fast, and doing your best to keep up with the information flow. Sooner or later you are going to need reliable, fast, efficient, data storage systems. Assureon®, a member of the Flexible Storage Platform™, is an archive storage system that is ideal for storage optimization, regulatory and corporate compliance, and long-term archive.
It will store your data for a day, or for a decade with total integrity, and perfect protection. Your data can be stored on the premise, or in the cloud, or both if you wish.
Of course the storage complies with all governmental regulatory requirements, so you can feel secure offloading your expensive primary storage, and make room for active data that needs to be accessed on a daily basis.
But for me, the very best thing is its ease of use. Individuals will not need to change their working systems, as the archiving is totally transparent, the all files and folders appear to be in the same familiar locations, even though they are offloaded. Once configured, there are shortcut links that access the needed data with a click. Its easy to search the entire archive, and restrictions can be put in place so that only the people who should get access to files are able to do so.
Yep. Sooner or later, you’ll need to deal with data storage issues, so let this be your heads-up!
You Can Learn How to Be Happy
Jan 6th
A long time ago, I heard a quote that has stuck with me. I can’t remember who said it, so there’s no way for me to give credit, but I’ve never forgotten it. It goes like this: “Cheerful is a choice.”
This has meant a lot to me over the years, as I went to work feeling gnarly or grumpy, and just wishing that the world would go away. I would remember that I had a choice in how I greeted the people in my life, and that being cheerful, putting on a smile, and being courteous was a CHOICE. I found that I could do it by choosing to do so, and then, by doing it, somehow, I actually did feel better.
This principle, that we have control over our feelings, our actions, and our internal states, is a crucial one to understand, if we are to have the lives that we desire. No matter what life has thrown at us, we can still choose to respond in this way, or in that way. Which way we choose will have a profound affect on not only our internal state, but on how the rest of our outer world is also.
Unfortunately, we are not taught this in school, or even in our culture. Many of us are floundering around at the mercy of random events, feeling out of control, frustrated, and miserable, because our lives just haven’t turned out as expected. We were never taught to cultivate an anchor of personal happiness that comes from controlling ourselves within. We were never taught How To Be Happy .
Learning how to have internal control is a real skill, and can be learned. It is not the same as taking some pill, or slapping on a temporary bandage, or deadening the pain temporarily with a drug, or even with some activity that acts like the placebo effect . We can, if we decide to learn how, begin to control our lives on the outside, by controlling our lives on the inside.
Dad’s Advice
Jan 2nd
Posted by Heriberto Fuentes
My dad kept warning me and warning me about going to WwW.homesecuritysystem.CoM to get a home alarm but I just didn’t listen. That was until my house got broken into while I was away on vacation. Nothing will wake you up like seeing all your laundry strewn about the foyer so I took his advice and had this place all alarmed up. I guess when I bought a house I didn’t realize there was so much involved in taking care of it. I’d always been living in apartment complexes where security wasn’t an issue but now that I own this place I feel like I have to be a bit more vigilant. I love the responsibility but sometimes it can be kind of overwhelming, to be honest. I’m only 27 years old and sometimes I don’t have to worry about taking care of a big old house but I love living here so I guess that’s part of the trade off. At least I’m building equity rather than just wasting money on rent.
Do you have the Worst Office Ever?
Dec 23rd
This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Contest Factory for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.
Here’s your chance to improve! Make a video of your office, with all the mess, the chaos, the outdated equipment, etc., and post it to the PMC site, for a chance for a Do-Over!
Just explain why your office is horrible, with noise, and dirt, and darkness, or whatever your particular problems are, and why the Contest Factory needs to come and “Pimp Your Cube”. Tell all your friends, coworkers, and family to go see your video and vote for it, and leave comments. You get sweepstake points for registering, for their votes and their comments, and for inviting others to upload their own videos. (not to mention, how horrible your space is…)
You could get your whole place “pimped” with a grand prize of $1200 to get new equipment, or new furniture, or even a high end stereo and/or espresso machine. It’s easy to upload your video to the site from your computer, your phone, or your webcam. And, there is a second prize of a $200 gift card to be chosen randomly.
Go check this out. Visit the site, Pimp My Cube Contest , register, and upload your videos to enter the contest. Then have all your friends vote on it. You just may win, because so far, there are very few videos in the running.
· The contest period is from 12/5/11 at 12:00PM to 1/31/12 at 12:00PM.
LG DoublePlay is Pretty Awesome
Dec 16th
This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of LG DoublePlay™ for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.
We all like our tech toys. I know I do. We were talking the other day about the movie “Back to the Future” where the comment was made that he had 3 televisions in his house, and the mother said, “Oh, he’s just kidding, no one has 3 televisions. Then we went on to talk about computers. I realized that I had no less than 7 computers, all functional, in my house. I carry two with me at all times, the laptop, and my phone, which does just about everything that the laptop does.
Isn’t that amazing? How far have we come in the last 50 years? My lifestyle has changed so, I can’t imagine being able to function without having one of those techy devices right by my side. I send dozens of texts a day, and the younger generation sends hundreds. Once, I had one of my kids texting the other one from the front seat of the car to the back seat of the car!
So, the devices we use to run our worlds is changing every day. I’ve discovered a new “toy” that can “slice and dice, and just about cook dinner for you”. It’s the new LG Double Play. It has dual customizable touch screens- one is a 3.5-inch main display and there is a 2.0-inch sub display ¾ that operate independently or in tandem, as well as a full slide-out QWERTY keyboard. Wow. Two screens. Who would have thought? But I can see how extremely useful that is going to be already. I spend at least a half hour on my phone using social networks, and this would really be handy to be able to research and send at the same time. The querty keyboard is a help too. Don’t you think that this ability would change the way you network? How much time do you spend doing that right now, anyway? Any way we can save time is a good thing.
This android based device is only available from T-Mobile, and it’s pretty amazing. I bet it’s more amazing than the phone you have now. Leave me a comment and tell me what you might do differently in your social networking if you had the LG DoublePlay™ .
27 Viruses At One Time
Dec 9th
This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Norton Small Business by Symantec for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.
Recently, I had an issue with my computer, and and I took it to my friendly neighborhood computer troubleshooter for some work. It’s always a bear to disconnect everything, and haul it over, even though the shop is nearby. The real issue is being without my computer for any length of time. Seems like the world stops revolving when my computer is out of commission. Then, when I get it back, I have to wade through hundreds of emails… what a pain.
At any rate, Emily found 27 viruses- count ‘em- 27! and cleaned them out of my machine. Thank God no permanent damage was done, but I can tell you, right then I began a search for better protection. I came across some information about Norton that I’d like to share with you.
Right now Norton has a 30% discount for small business owners that get certain products- primarily the 5U/10 products). So that’s a good thing right up front. For more info on this, go to get 30% off Norton Small Business Products now
My business is not very large, but it still could be crippled by random malware, and any small business runs the same risk. Without having some kind of virus and malware protection, you’re playing a dangerous game. Thinking that you have the one computer that will not fall victim is probably a little over optimistic. Everyone needs the kind of protection that Norton can give us.
Norton has a couple of services that they have just launched this past September, the Norton 360, and the Norton Internet Security 2012 . You can get more details here: Norton Small Business by Symantec
It would have been very handy for me to have had these services before my entire business crashed, due to those nasty viruses. I encourage you to check out these up-to-date services for protecting your computer, and your livelihood, before you have serious issues yourself.
You can leave a comment here if you wish and let me know which Norton product you might make the best use of, and how it’s going to benefit your business. Any and all thoughts are always welcome.
Norton Anti-Virus Takes the Cake
Dec 9th
This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Norton Small Business by Symantec for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.
As my loyal readers will be aware, I recently had an issue with my computer, which decided to invite a couple dozen viral guests to visit. OK, maybe they weren’t invited, but they came in anyway, and wreaked havoc on my computer. After having to pay to get it all cleaned out, I went searching for new malware prevention software.
Norton leads the way with their newly introduced products. They came out with two last September, the Norton 360 and the Norton Internet Security 2012. These two are cutting edge, and will most certainly take care of any issues that I may have. You should check them out here to make sure that you have the latest and greatest - Norton Small Business by Symantec . It sure would have saved me some grief, if I’d looked them up just a month sooner. You never know when that nasty Trojan will knock on your (virtual) door, but it surely would be a good idea to have some protection BEFORE it happens. Thinking and hoping and praying that it won’t happen is just not good business.
If your business depends on your computer, (and whose doesn’t?) then having good protection is vital. The nasties out there are forever trying to steal your identity, your bank account, or just mess up your system. I have no idea why the hacker get so much pleasure from pure destruction, especially when they don’t even know who is getting hit, but the reality of it is that they are there, and we all need to keep our systems safe. I’ve been doing some research, and am quite impressed with the protection that Norton provides. They current have a 30% discount for small businesses, so that’s a good deal. You can protect your Small Business from the latest online threats by getting more information.
What are you doing to keep your system safe? Have you had to deal with viruses that crashed your computer? Leave a comment for me, and tell me which one of the Norton products might benefit you, and why you think so. Thanks!
Business Telephone Systems Miami
Dec 4th
I have friends who live in Miami, Fla, USA. They have a small business there, and in spite of the rough times that the economy is dealing with, they seem to be doing very well. Their business has been steady, and actually growing bit by bit. I guess you could say they are one of the lucky ones. Although, if you talked to them, you would get story after story of how hard they are working, and how careful they are to keep expenses down.
It is often the capital expenses that can make or break a company, and they were telling me how important it is to make sure that the regular monthly expenses are kept to a minimum. This only makes sense. If you let your profits get chewed up by high costs that hit you again and again, there just is no way to get ahead. (I’ve noticed this with my own budget, haven’t you?)
One of the ways that they have managed to cut their expenses is by getting a really good deal on their business telephone services. They switched from having their old service, to a VOIP service from Telephone Systems Miami . Now they are saving about 50% over what they used to be paying. That’s a great savings, each and every month.
Still, just saving money is no great deal if the service is no good, so it’s very important to get hooked up with a company that gives really great customer service as well as good phone service. Being good stewards of their business money, my friends made sure to check this out with Miami City Information before they actually made the switch. This way they were sure that they knew what they were getting.
So far, they are really happy with the deal, saving money on the phone bill each month, and getting quality phone service to keep the business running smoothly. Way to go guys!