10 TECH TIPS FOR PEOPLE IN CAREER TRANSITION
Have you created a Technology Plan?
- Take an inventory of your existing equipment at home and determine what is usable and what needs to be replaced.
- If you currently share a computer with other members of your household, consider buying one for yourself.
- Find a place in your home to work without background noise and traffic.
- If you don’t have wireless Internet access at home, have one set up so multiple computers have Internet access simultaneously. Make sure your wireless network is strong in your work area and secured with a password.
- If you only have one e-mail address, set up another for business purposes only.
- Consider purchasing an all-in-one printer, scanner, copier, fax machine if you don’t already have one. If it is wireless, there is no need for more than one printer.
- Don’t bother adding another telephone line at home for business purposes. Use your cell phone.
- Since you no longer have a corporate support line to call, find a reliable tech support person and set up a maintenance program for your equipment.
- Since recent surveys indicate that 3 out of 5 people find that they spend more time working outside their office, consider upgrading to a smartphone (blackberry, iphone, or android) which will give you access to your e-mail and the Internet on the road.
CAREER IN TRANSITION?
HOW GOOD ARE YOUR TECHNOLOGY SKILLS?
Looking to start a new business? Are you in the job market?
Chances are that if you previously worked for a company and had an assistant, many tasks were delegated and support was just a phone call away. Whether you are starting a new venture or looking for employment, your success will depend on your basic computer skills and having a technology plan that supports your efforts.
The majority of Baby Boomers did not start their professional careers in the digital world. The way we communicate and acquire information has changed dramatically. Social networks such as LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter are now part of our personal and business lives. Cell phones have made us more mobile and reachable everywhere. Everyone uses Google to find people, places and things.
Set some time aside and take an inventory of your basic technology skills. Are you able to retrieve and save e-mail attachments, search through past e-mails? Are you able to type and format documents? Are you able to locate your documents? Are you able to make educated decisions about your equipment? Do you know how to use a smartphone? The list is endless.
Individuals and companies that have not embraced technology will find it very difficult to compete in today’s global and wired world.
How to connect an iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch to your TV
I have dozens of home made video and audio files filed in my Dropbox app in the cloud. From my various iDevices (iPad and iPhone), I am able to view them on my large screen TV. Since I do not have Apple TV, I am using a simple lightening Digital AV Adapter from Apple for the setup. One end plugs into your iDevice, while the other attaches to an HDMI cable, and finally, into your TV (or receiver). If you do not have one of the latest iPads and iPhones, the answer is Apple’s 30-pin digital A/V adapter,
Of course, for those of you that own an Apple TV, all you need to do if connect your iPhone or iPad to the same Wi-Fi network as your Apple TV.
To read more information, CLICK HERE
An App for Everything!!
In today’s Wall Street Journal, Geoffrey Fowler writes that “There’s an Uber for everything now. Washio is for having someone do your laundry, Sprig and SpoonRocket cook your dinner and Shyp will mail things out so you don’t have to brave the post office. Zeel delivers a massage therapist (complete with table). Heal sends a doctor on a house call, while Saucey will rush over alcohol. And by Jeeves, cutesy names are part of the schtick—Dufl will pack your suitcase and Eaze will reup a medical marijuana supply.”
While I have not yet found an app for most of my everyday chores, I do rely on my iPhone for a car service (Uber and Via), Starbucks, breaking news, weather, and of course, sports.
Fowler reports that “Life sure is easy when you let your apps do the walking, but I learned they’re not only for the lazy. Most provided great service and, to my surprise, some have ingenious new business models that actually saved me money. It’s just not clear how many will make sense outside dot-com Camelots like San Francisco—or even still be in business in a year.”
As I have stressed to my clients, it is important to document your needs and interests. I meet with many people in the course of a day and recommend different equipment (smartphones, tablets, laptops) and services based on their individual interests.
To read the complete article, CLICK HERE
What is the Future of the Internet?
In a recent article in the Wall Street Journal, Tony Fadell wrote about the future of the Internet in an article titled “All Around Us, Nothing but Net.” Below are some of his observations:
“In many ways, the Internet of the future will feel different from the Internet we know today. Instead of seeking it out, we’ll be surrounded by it. And instead of extracting data from it, we’ll be fed a constant stream of curated, personalized information to help us solve problems and live better—and live better together”
“Tomorrow’s Internet will be everywhere and in everything. It will draw on massive amounts of data to augment our own intelligence. And it will help us make better decisions—from avoiding dangerous drug interactions to diagnosing illnesses to deciding when water skiing might not be the best idea”
“It took the telephone more than 45 years to earn a place in the majority of American homes. The Internet did it almost three times as fast”
“If there’s one thing we know for sure, it’s that the Internet of the future will be everywhere—and the more people who have it, the more important it will become”
Very interesting. To read the entire article click here
What You Need To Do If You Become a Victim of Identity Theft
The response to my recent BlogTalkRadio program “Why You Should Be Concerned About Identity Theft,” was overwhelming. My guest, Steven Weisman and I discussed some of the reasons and ways that identity theft occurs.
Many of you wanted to know what to do if you were a victim of identity theft. This week, Steve returned to discuss what you should be doing if you find that your identity has been stolen. Here are several of the topics that Steve and I covered.
– The importance of filing a police report
– Initiate a credit freeze
– How to correct your credit report
– How to deal with debt collectors
– What you should be doing about your passwords
In case you missed the interview, you can hear the complete program by clicking on the blogtalkradio logo below.
What is Cloud Computing?
What is the cloud? Where is the cloud? Are we in the cloud now? Whether or not you understand “The Cloud,” chances are you have been using it for years.
Simply stated, cloud computing means storing and accessing data and programs over the Internet instead of your computer’s hard drive. Having your data in the cloud means you can access it from any computer or any of your mobile devices (smartphones and tablets).
To read more, click below:
How Smartphones Are Changing Clinical Research
Apps to Track Exercise, Sleep Help Patients Participate in Clinical Trials
According to Ron Winslow’s recent article in the Wall Street Journal, “Smartphones also offer the capability to track people’s symptoms and activities continuously in their daily lives. In many conventional studies, patients might have just a few clinic visits a year for tests and symptom updates, and those snapshots may not provide a detailed picture.”
“Patients say symptoms fluctuate over the course of a day, but we’ve never had a way of measuring that,” said Ray Dorsey, a University of Rochester researcher who heads the Parkinson’s app study. With a smartphone, patients and researchers can observe symptoms that may change hourly and see how the changes correlate with factors such as exercise, meal times and medication dose. The phone also objectively records measurements of activities—minutes of exercise, steps walked, hours of sleep—which in conventional studies are typically obtained from less-reliable patient recall.
Why You Should Be Concerned About Identity Theft
Have you been a victim of Identity Theft?
Are you concerned about all the reports of personal information being stolen from corporate data bases?
According to most sources, approximately 15 million United States residents have their identities used fraudulently each year.
Close to 100 million additional Americans have their personal identifying information placed at risk of identity theft each year.
Steve Weisman, one of the country’s leading experts on scams and identity theft, offers the following tips for cleaning digital house:
– Make birthdates private on Facebook. Hackers glean personal information, such as age and location, from social media accounts to piece together social security numbers. By keeping birthdates private and opting for snail mailed birthday wishes, identity thieves have one less resource.
– Delete saved credit card numbers. To safeguard against data breaches, remove credit card numbers on file with retailers and enter them anew with each purchase.
– Swap generic passwords with tailored phrases. Use a strong and unique password for each frequented online website. A password made up of a phrase such as “IDon’tLikePasswords$$$” combines capital letters, small letters and symbols and is easy to remember. Personalize for a particular site by taking a few letters from the site and adding it to the password. An Amazon password would be “IDon’tLikePasswords$$$Ama.”
– Remove old anti-virus and anti-malware software and install updated versions. Keep devices safe and secure with the latest software and security patches as soon as they are available. Keystroke logging malware can invade devices with weak security and capture credit card information.
Recently, I interviewed Steve on my BlogTalkRadio program. To hear the complete interview, click on the image below.
Should You Be Purchasing the New Apple Watch?
According to the Wall Street Journal’s Christopher Mims, it might not be the best time to run out and buy the new Apple watch.
That’s not a knock against Apple Inc., or any of the other makers of smartwatches, whose devices are encumbered by the same design and technological limitations. It does mean, however, that anyone who isn’t a self-described early adopter might want to avoid the entire category of wearables, at least for a few more years.
To read the complete article, click here