“Free” is one of my favorite words so when I have the option to get something for free, I will allocate a reasonable amount of time figuring out how I can apply that to my life before I determine if I should adopt it, or if it’s worth the extra few bucks for the paid…
Many people are looking to cut expenses. Personally, I’ve shaved at least a couple thousand dollars a month from my expenses by downsizing to one car, cutting out lots of monthly recurring fees, and looking closely at which services I can now shift to the cloud. Software: Contact managers, office documents, media editing programs, you…
Hackers and crackers and data breaches! Oh my! Confused? Overwhelmed? Don’t care? You should, and there’s help. Few people are head first into gadgets, technology, the cloud and security as I. I have my devices, my wife’s, my kids, there’s Apple products, Microsoft Windows, smart phones, feature phones and tablets. It’s maddening. Now instead of…
The old adage, “It’s not what you know, it’s who you know,” still rings true today. Without a network of “trust agents,” influencers, or simply good contacts, it’s hard to get anything accomplished. Getting a new job, making sales, or simply finding a good accountant requires a network of people you know, like, and trust…
Digital assets include: entertainment files (e.g. music downloads), personal memories (e.g. photographs), personal communications (e.g. emails), personal records (e.g. health, financial, insurance), and career information (e.g. resumes, portfolios, cover letters, contacts), as well as any creative projects or hobbies involving digital files. If your PC crashes or is hacked and your data is not properly…
A burglary occurs every 15 seconds. The chance of your home being broken into is higher than you’d think. The good news is that today’s alarm systems are “not your father’s alarm.” Twenty years ago, a contractor had to spend a week tearing up your walls, ceilings, and windows to retrofit a messy, hardwired security…
Amazon Web Services is a cloud-based service hosted by Amazon.com, which provides numerous tools for web-based businesses. The service’s primary function is to help businesses of any size compute and store data. Solutions available to both businesses and consumers include: Application Hosting Backup and Storage Content Delivery Databases E-Commerce Enterprise IT High Performance Computing Media…
Consumers enjoy a certain level of protection that business bank accounts do not, and it’s called “Regulation E.” Here is Regulation E in black and white: “ELECTRONIC FUND TRANSFERS (REGULATION E) Limitations on amount of liability. A consumer’s liability for an unauthorized electronic fund transfer or a series of related unauthorized transfers shall be determined as…
Criminals often target cash machines, as well as various other automated kiosks that dispense DVDs, tickets, or other merchandise. They have discovered numerous techniques for compromising these devices. According to the ATM Industry Association (ATMIA), ATM fraud alone results in over a billion dollars in losses each year. But manufacturers are fighting back. Diebold, a…
Around 1994, when I operated a small mail order catalog business, it was very difficult to obtain “merchant status,” or approval to accept Visa, MasterCard, Discover, and American Express cards. It was easier if you had a storefront, but payment processors made mail order businesses jump through more hoops. Their main concern was that companies…
