The Refresh Orlando Heirs

My son slipped a penny in the slot, cranked the machine, and turned his (or was it mine?) penny flat. He can’t spend it now, but who uses pennies these days? We have drawers full of them. Watching him made me think of Thomas Friedman’s book, The World Is Flat: A Brief History Of The Twenty-First Century (an easy recollection since I was reading the book).

Friedman writes for the New York Times editorial department. He has written Longitudes and Attitudes and The Lexus and the Olive Tree. The World is Flat completes a trilogy that validates Marshall McLuan’s maxim, “We now live in a global village…a simultaneous happening.”

Friedman makes global observations with wise criticism and keen understanding. For example, listen here to Friedman talk about the Iraq War, “If you don’t visit a bad neighborhood in a flat world, it will visit you, ” and it did.

11/9 and 9/11 I won’t give away the entire content of Friedman’s book. I couldn’t do it justice, and it is too long (471 pages). I will tell you that two events hinge the world for Friedman. The fall of the Berlin Wall, the rise of Windows95, and the fall of Windows on the World. Oddly, the first happened 11/9/1989 and the last 9/11/2001.

Finding Flat Pennies The world is flat because nothing is proprietary. What can be made, learned, constructed, and used in America can be made, learned, constructed, and used almost anywhere. Information and innovation are not constrained; the Internet, the cell-phone, and imagination have global instincts. Almost anyone can flatten a penny.

What a flat world means to your investment choices Friedman does not address foreign investing. He emphasizes collaboration between scientist, analysts, researchers, academics, and corporations. I encourage you to read the many examples of outsourcing, insourcing, and infosourcing articulated by Thomas Friedman. If we are to maintain a viable international presence, we must involve ourselves with other nations, their betterment, and our mutual benefits.

We can make one keen observation. Investments are not ethnocentric. Intelligence is not either. Every investor must accept a future that involves opportunities in China, India, and Singapore (oriental not occidental). American companies scramble for this opportunity; the Congress and the President should avoid quasi-protectionist acts.

My Son Must Do More Than Flatten Pennies Fortunately, he does! While doing homework, he types messages to his classmates (discovered girls recently). I told him, “When you spend time sending messages, a young man your age in China or India is working on his next math problem. He is your competition.” Americans are not entitled. Encourage and warn your children and grandchildren.

“The flattening of the world is moving ahead…nothing is going to stop it. But what can happen is a decline in our standard of living, if more Americans are not empowered and educated to participate…. This is not a test. This is a crisis, and as Paul Romer has so perceptively warned, ‘A crisis is a terrible thing to waste’” (The World Is Flat, page 305f).

Ray Randall serves clients as a registered investment advisor with his firm, Ethos Advisory Services, Essex, Massachusetts Ethos Advisory Services. He has wide experience within the financial services industry, writes a weekly newsletter for Ethos Advisory Services, and coordinates the developments at Echievements.com. Ray holds a Masters Degree from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, Hamilton, MA. You may call Ray (617-275-5565).

Make-or-Break Factors in Success and Profitability

For quick printers, estimating can prove to be a major factor in the success or failure of their business.

When a customer requests a bid on a job, they need a fast turnaround, and the best price. For a printer, there are two important issues; first of course is the price and second the profit. If they price a job too high they might miss out on getting the job, and if they price it too low, this starts cutting into their potential profits.

Estimating software is a tool that helps eliminate this margin for error and make every printer’s job easier. This ease is why estimating software is becoming an integral part for many companies in the printing and graphics industry. But what type of estimating software should a printer look for? With so many different companies selling estimating software it can become difficult to find a solution that is the right one.

For this reason Cyrious Software has taken on the role of business software consultants rather then focusing strictly on selling. When looking for a business management and estimating solution, the ability of a company to consult and guide you to the correct solution, be it theirs or someone else’s, should be a major deciding factor. If a software company isn’t willing to work to find a solution that specifically fits their business, it might be wise to find a different company to do business with.

Estimating software can range from a simple estimating calculator package, to a complete powerful, integrated estimating, job tracking & business management system, like Cyrious Software. The difficulty is figuring out which system is right for your business.

How Much & For What

Companies should look at the money spent on estimating/business management software, as an investment and not an expense. Most complete software systems range from about $2,000 all the way up to $14,000 depending on the number of licenses, modules and different customizations. This somewhat large investment makes it vital for printers to find a system that they can not only use to increase profits and save time, but also one they have the ability to continue to grow with.

Many printers are looking for a system that not only has the ability to estimate, job track, and do invoicing but also has the ability to export to accounting packages, create reports, manage their customer base, and expand their business through target marketing. Because not all estimating software packages have this complete business management functionality, printers and similar businesses need to make sure the estimating software they choose has the functionality they need (i.e. Customer Management Tools, Marketing Tools, Shipping & Credit Card Integration) The last thing a company needs is to buy additional software after the initial investment.

Another aspect to consider when searching for a software package is the accuracy it provides. Accuracy is one of the most important features to look for in estimating software. The price of using inaccurate information can add up and become extremely detrimental to a business. Accuracy in estimating software depends on the ability to customize the software to fit the printers pricing. With Cyrious Software, your pricing & cost structure is customized and built into the software making it virtually impossible to have inaccurate estimates.

Integration Is Key

Another factor to consider is how easily estimating software will let one go from estimate, to order, to invoice, and beyond. Without estimating/business management software, printers spend a lot time re-entering/re-writing customer or product information. Even with estimating software if you don’t have the right system you could be left re-keying a lot of important information. This can be a major waste of time. That is why Cyrious Software has created their application to encompass this integration. This means the first time you enter company or order information you never have to enter it in again, unless of course you need to make an update or edit.

The “beyond” part is where Cyrious Software distinguishes itself from many of its competitors. Imagine having the power of an entire marketing research firm at your fingertips. Cyrious gives you that power. Once you have company information and order history in the Cyrious Software system, you can create queries that will allow you to separate customers into different segments, and provide you with an easy method to begin to target different markets. Once these segments are grouped, you can automatically e-mail, fax or print marketing materials to them. Whether it is a follow up letter, thank you note, or special offer, businesses can use the software to help strengthen relationships with current/new customers and/or develop a stronger marketing strategy.

About The Author

Danny Tangredi

For more information on Cyrious Software’s Estimating & Business Management Solutions go to www.cyrious.net or call 1-800-552-1418.

ERP(Enterprise Resource Planning) software has traditionally been
used by large corporates to integrate and automate diverse departments across the enterprise. For a long time, smaller companies purchased individual accounting and payroll packages and then migrated to expensive ERP solutions as they grew. They did not have much options as ERP solutions were costlier and required magnitude and many employees to justify their use.

Now, with many Open Source software coming out, it is possible for SMEs to go in for ERPs at an earlier stage. There are several in the market including Compiere, ERP5 and Fisterra. Companies have to carefully study individual requirements and test out these softwares to determine suitability.

In this article, I would like to review CK-ERP, an Open Source ERP/CRM system, ideally suited for use by SMEs. It has a total of 17 modules including accounting ledger, Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivables, Purchase Order, Sales Order, Quotation, Point of Sale, Human Resource, Payroll and contact management. It operates as modules running atop phpGroupWare. This makes it possible for the software to be easily installed on Internet if employees are in various locations or on the Intranet for more secure transactions.

Here is a overview of its excellent features.

Customer Billing process

Any company with more than 10 recurring customers should seriously
consider using an ERP(such as ck-ERP) to keep track of payments, work
orders and related accounting. ck-erp has ck-Quote (a Quotation module),
ck-so(Sales order module) and ck-ar (Accounts Receivable module) to
keep

• Sales reps can key in Work Quotations for customers. The CK-Quote
  module allows for easily configurable Quotation templates which can
  be printed or emailed to customers.

• Sales reps can easily convert the Quotations to Sales Orders when
  work commences. A Sales order serves as a formal record of a work
  order and the terms and condition under which the work is executed
  sent to a customer. This direct conversion from Quotation to Sales
  Order eliminates a lot of extra work typing out docs. However, it
  is possible also to manually enter Sales Orders.
• At the time of billing, Sales Orders can again be converted to Invoices.
  It is possible to create Invoices with or without Tax. Here again,
  print and email friendly Official invoices can be generated. It is
  also possible to Bulk-Dispatch several invoices at the same time.
• Want to check out how promptly a customer pays? Simply check the Billing
  history which says when a customer was invoiced and how quickly he
  has paid you. You can also check Billing histories of each Sales order.
• Once a customer has been invoiced, it is a easy matter to record payment
  receipts. A single invoice can have several payments. For instance
  if a customer is invoiced for $1000, he can pay in parts. It is an
  easy matter to enter part payments against any invoice. You can also
  check out the pending payments - invoice wise, customer wise and even
  company wise. An aging report shows you how much dues you have to
  get.
• All invoice and payments get automatically integrated with the General
  Ledger, making accounting very easy. It is possible to view related
  Journal/Ledger entries for each invoice

You can easily enter customer records and configure various types
of tax. The accounts receivables include Accounts Receivable Aging
reports, Customer Invoice Aging reports and Detailed list of Tax collected.

If you are a Manufacturing company with thousands of customers, you
can consider middle agents like Distributors or C&F agencies as customers
and keep track of their payments using the same software.

The system is multi-currency and multi-user, allowing each module
multiple access levels.

Inventory and Purchase process

Many companies, especially trading and manufacturing companies are
generally swamped with purchase inventory and vendor information.
Keeping track of vendor payments and paying bills in time before credit
collection agencies call is a major source of tension. Here is what
you can do with ck-erp’s purchase modules - ck-po(Purchase Order module),
ck-ap(Accounts Payable module) and ck-inv(Inventory module) . Lets
see how a purchase process works.

• Enter purchase orders to keep track of the service contracts and products
  you have purchased.
• The moment you receive the purchased products or service, you can
  add it to your inventory using ck-inventory module. Marking goods
  receipt, automatically updates the inventory. You can view your Inventory
  Balance and In/Out History for each product that you have in the Inventory.
  This feature is very useful for Traders and manufacturers. The inventory
  is integrated with the General Ledger, so that increases in the inventory
  also updates the Asset value of your company.
• When you receive an invoice from the vendor, you can convert the Purchase
  Order into a Vendor Invoice. Maintaining vendor invoices on the system,
  reduces your dependency on the email or paper invoices your vendors
  keep sending you. You can easily manage vendor payments and due dates
  with this system.
• When you make payments, Record full or part payments made against
  Vendor invoices.
• You can view at any time, reports on unpaid invoices and aging reports
  on the total amounts due per vendor or per purchase order. The ERP
  gives you an amazing degree of clarity on outgoing dues.
• You can maintain Vendor database and configure various kinds of taxes.
• The Inventory lets you maintain product names and numbers, Bin/Location
  information, photos, reorder levels, unit and weight information,
  and 3 different price informations.
• Inventory adjustments, Assembly information and Alternate Part/Service
  information are some other features of ck-inventory.

Accounts

The accounts section has practically everything one would want.

The core General Ledger module has the basic Double Entry accounting
system with Ledger and Journal. The interesting aspect of the General
Ledger is that it is the base for the Accounts Receivable, Accounts
Payable, Inventory, Bank and the Payroll modules. The entries from
all these modules ultimately reflect in the General Ledger.

The accounting system has multi-currency support. The admin can set
Standard Remarks for the invoice, purchase orders, Quotations and
so on. The admin can even setup Multiple Ledgers for various divisions.

A Bank Reconciliation module allows you to reconcile bank statements
with ledger entries.

On the flip side of the Accounts module is the fact that it does not
have the yearly Opening and Closing balances. This makes it difficult
to reconcile yearly accounts. A major flaw, which one can hope will
be corrected in the near future.

Point of Sale(POS)

If you are a supermarket with multiple cashier desks and high cash
transactions, you could use this module. Again the Point of Sale module
is integrated with the General Ledger.

The ck-pos module lets cashiers enter Cash Sales, with or without
tax. A good feature of the POS system is that it allows Credit Sales
as well. Useful when customers insist on Purchase on Credit, for example
in high value goods. Any Credit Sales entered by the cashiers have
to be approved by Manager.

The Manager interface to the POS, ck-pos-m allows a manager to remotely
control all the cashier operations from his office.

• Cashboxes can be setup for each POS counter and each shift. The manager
  can setup staff to work at each counter.
• The Manager can for instance view Shift End cash balance per Counter
  per shift. . The Manager can for instance view the Shift End cash
  balance at Counter 2 at the end of yesterday’s morning shift.
• Managers can setup special price plans
• Managers can add Reduction Charges such as special student discounts,
  senior citizen discount or Add-On Charge such as Sunday Surcharges
  or service charges.
• Managers can configure various payment options for non-cash options
  such as Cash Coupons, Exchange Coupon, Cheques and Credit cards.
• Taxes such as VAT, GST, PST can be setup.
• Sales reports

Human Resource Management

HR management software of some sort is required if you have more than
10 employees, and better still if payroll is integrated with the General
Ledger. CK-ERP has excellent HR management features.

• Manage employee database including name, staff grades and roles, photo,
  address, email, phone and emergency contacts. A good feature in the
  HR software is that you are not limited by the number of phone fields.
  You can enter unlimited records per employee.
• Employees have their own Staff Self Service , something like a “My
  Account”, which lets them Apply for Leave, enter Time sheet and
  attendance details and even request for Expense reimbursement. As
  soon as someone applies for leave or for expense reimbursement, their
  supervisor gets an email notification for approval.
• Timesheet and attendance management. Timesheet can be linked to achievements.
  For example if you are a PC assembling unit, employees can record
  the number of PCs they have assembled per day or per hour. Sales staff
  can enter the sales targets they have achieved.
• Multiple department support
• Record Performance Evaluations per employee
• Expense reimbursement management
• Leave application and leave management.
• Payroll management. Automatic/manual payslips via email. Bank statement
  for payroll.

CRM and Contact Management

CK-ERP’s latest addition is the CRM package.

• CK-CRM offers Helpdesk management and Sales contact management(for
  pre-sales) in a neat package all integrated with the central Customer
  database. Sales reps can track the sales calls and the sales contacts
  made. Customer relation executives can check the help calls and the
  helpdesk contacts made with each customer.
• The HelpDesk system is especially beautiful. Customer relation executives
  can view the entire Call case History Log per HelpDesk call, record
  the customer’s state of mind(furious, angry, pleased, excited), media(email,
  phone call, meeting) and the status of contact(research, resolution,
  followup, closed) Monitoring officers can be set for each ticket.
  Priorities(high, neutral low) and case categories(complaint, suggestion,
  bug report) can be setup for each call .
• The CRM is integrated with Quotation, Sales Order and the Invoice
  modules as well. This makes it very powerful. Customer Relation executives
  and Sales reps can check for instance the credit rating of the customer,
  the number of times he has been Quoted, billing histories and payment
  made.

• Customer Contracts can be recorded
• Credit Limits can be set per customer

CK-CRM also includes a Contact module for organisational contacts
and individual contacts.

If you are a teacher or a professor, obviously you will be vexed when one student gives a sneaky yawn in your class. Don’t hastily blame him but think twice about your lecture: may it lack a small fire of passion and creativeness?

If you are a student, you cannot wait to become a Jack Black’s pet in “School of Rock” as you can memorize a mathematical formula by a song and get A mark not because of any force but your true love.

All is about new pedagogy.

No student wants to listen to a rambling speech and many teachers try to add some games, small contests, etc. into the lessons with the hope that their class becomes more vivid. However, this world seems to be not enough without the wise recognition of the new technology’s usage.

Voice changer software (VCS) is one of the modern tools which can perfect your educational audio projects. With the function of a recorder, MP3 player and especially voice changer and voice simulator, VCS can support you to prepare lesson plans. Imagine that in your literature class, you don’t need to finger-point at any student to ask him/her to read an extract of Romeo and Juliet but turn your recorded file on. Your multi-voices in multi-characters will bring an enjoyable feeling to your students as they can live in a real world of Shakespeare and all characters’ accents sound like in the 16th century.

VCS is also a useful teaching aid for any music teacher. With a bit creativeness, you can morph music, edit melody, add effect and so on to make all your students goggle with an interesting mixed CD of their favorites.

The list of those benefits can be much longer, but it is up to your own pedagogy. Simply visit http://www.audio4fun.com or use the phrase “voice changer software” in Google search engine to find more information. You can do all, but remember that your students are future’s seeds, so your educational projects must be from the needs of them.

Chris Martin is an writer specialized in educational software products. Contact him at: media@audio4fun.com

Phishing is the practice of sending fraudulent email messages supposedly from a legitimate company or organization in order to trick someone into giving out personal and confidential information. This information could include a user ID, password, credit card number or even a Social Security number. At its most basic level, Phishing is a form of identity theft. It is one of the fastest growing cyber crimes, and there are estimates that 1 in 20 people who receive a Phishing email will respond to it with their personal information. Since the criminals who send out these Phishing messages are good at what they do, it’s important to be able to recognize a Phishing email so you won’t respond to their request and become a victim of identity theft. Here are a few signs that the message you have received might just be a Phishing expedition.

• The email message is generic. Phishing emails are sent out in bulk to thousands of people, so you’ll see a generic greeting like ‘Dear Valued Customer’ and not directly addressed to you by name.

• The message gives a false sense of urgency. Phishing emails are developed and designed specifically to push the recipient to immediate action. If there is no compelling reason to respond to the message, you won’t. But if there is a fear of some kind of consequence for not providing the requested information you might just be motivated to act quickly.
This fear, urgency or even panic created by a Phishing email begins right with the subject line. Here are a few examples from actual Phishing messages:
‘Online Alert: Online Account is Blocked’

‘Fraud Report’

‘Credit Card Declined Notice’

‘Unauthorized Account Access’

The text of the message builds upon the initial sense of urgency. A message may state that your account will be closed within 24 hours if you don t verify your information. Sometimes the messages state that there has been suspicious activity on your bank account, or your credit card has been charged by an undesirable web site.

The criminals who send out Phishing emails have taken their scam to a new level. Now people are getting Phishing messages that offer a reward for responding to the message. The newest Phishing scam is a message that states you ve won a gift card somewhere (JC Penney, Circuit City and The Sports Authority have been recent ones), and you need to click the link in the email to provide the information where the gift can be sent. Other Phishing emails offer free enrollment in a fraud protection program by clicking the link and providing the requested information.

• The message states specifically “this is not a scam”. How does that saying go if it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it probably is a duck. Legitimate messages don’t need to state the obvious.

• A request is made to verify your information, and a link provided for you to do so. Phishing emails will use some tactic in order to trick the recipient into providing confidential information. This request is often tied in with the false sense of urgency created in the message. The link will take you to a very authentic looking site and ask you to fill in certain personal information. If you recognize you’ve made a mistake and you try to go back to a Phishing web site you probably won’t find it. The average lifespan of a Phishing web site in December 2004 was 6 days.

The link that is included in the email message for you to click and provide information might look legitimate, but it isn’t. Often the criminals will create a web site that has almost the same name as the original web site. They might add the word “verify” or use some other word along with the company name. You should never click a hyperlink in an email, especially if you don’t know who sent it to you.

Knowledge can be power when it comes to protecting yourself from identity theft and Phishing scams. Be aware of the tricks a criminal might do to steal your information, and don’t fall prey to them.

Colleen Durkin writes about spyware protection. Learn more at spyware-removal.thrcomputer.com .

THE INTRODUCTION: Want Your Powerpoint Presentations To Preserve The Animations in your SWF File

I must admit i’m the kind of person that like things to be well presented, for 2 particularly good reasons

1. It Is More Likely To Hold the Attention Of The Viewer.

2. It Shows Dedication And Conviction To What You Are Featuring.

The challenge of course is to attract the attention of the right kind of people, it could be that your business demands that you hold meetings to discuss statistics and long term goals or strategies, alternatively you may want to attract an audience with selling a product that either you market or produce, whatever reason you have in a business it usually costs a lot of money, and a lot of time to find the right kind of software that will perform all the features you require.

What Are The Benefits of SWF Conversion?

I notice that businesses today need a presentation tool to attract people worldwide or in a specific location, the internet is definitely the way to achieve this at the present moment in time, many corporations or other concerns use Microsoft Powerpoint, it is a relatively easy piece of software to use, and is most effective in getting peoples attention.

However if you are not careful your PPT / PPS files can start to accelerate in memory size due to the content you might be using, and presents the challenge as to whether it would be worth uploading to your website.

In todays market their is a fair selection of software that either acts a plugin to Microsoft Powerpoint, or a standalone GUI that converts the PPT file to SWF but with no bells and whistles to it, additionally you can purchase a software that acts a motion camera to record all the screen movements to ouput as a video file or a SWF file.

Video files could be a backward step if you are wanting to publish to a website in that you would have to compromise quality to make the file smaller, or keep the quality and let viewer have the frustration of waiting for the presentation to load which could take several minutes. the real solution is to export as a SWF file which would be considerably smaller and therefore would be much more acceptable.

Want To Know About A Software That Gives You More Than Its Competitors ?

Whilst considering purchasing a software that can do this for you namely converting PPT to SWF, you find that for your money you just have a software that justs perform that one function and nothing else, this could be disheartening to some.

For some time I have had an affiliation to find a software that could perform this conversion plus many other functions that could be used in business, for instance conversion to PDF, and then the ability to edit that PDF, also to have access to Desktop publishing features, the provision to take good quality screenshots that outclasses Microsoft Windows in built utility, (ideal for tutorials and other uses), then consider the possibilites of book keeping / accounting and spreadsheets use for database usage etc, the list is endless.

Just consider how much money you would spent just to perform these functions it would be a great deal of money.

Getting to the point, the software I recommend for consideration and even evaluation is COREL WORD PERFECT OFFICE X3 I use the standard edition it accomplishes with ease all that I have spoken about, and feel that it performs exceptionally well, no worries of major resources being used on the PC, plus you have the satisfaction that you are paying out for a software suite that caters for all your business or home user needs

Additionally COREL provide a Professional edition that has even more features than I have glossed over in this article.

In conclusion if you have to spend money it is wise to consider what you can get for that amount, you will find that this software recommendation is certainly one to consider if you are looking to get the best value and quality and use.

I am an enthusiast of computer creativity, I devote quality time to studying the very best software and hardware to achieve a first class end result either in business or home user activities, I also can advise inexperienced users as to their options in achieving their end goals whether it is a small business or personal enterprise, or basic home use . I am a webmaster of my own website which devotes its space to reviewing articles about the latest and greatest software releases.

My hobbies are video editing, photographic editing, musician who owns a record company Sackville Records (UK), and devotes much time to studying the Bible as well as lecturing about the subject. I enjoy learning and I am an avid student of the university of life.

For more information about this please visit http://www.softwareeditorial.com/

I have always been keen on taking advantage of free offers. Given the choice between a fast food meal with a freebie or one without, I’ll plump for the mystery envelope every time. It’s human nature, and marketers know it well.

Even in 1979, when I bought my first home computer, there were user groups who supplied type-in listings for a nominal charge. When I bought the first of a series of Atari ST computers in the ’80s and ’90s, I was a regular customer and contributor to a public domain (PD) software library. Fast forward to the end of the ’90s and I was distributing the source code to a number of simple educational flash games to other teachers over the internet.

So that’s my credentials. Like many others, however, I have received much more from open source software than I have ever put in. For the uninitiated, it is worth explaining a few definitions here:

Shareware Software: is free to try, but there is a moral obligation to register your software with its creator and receive upgrades and support in return for a fee. The evaluation period may last for a reasonable length of time after which some features of the software may become unusable.

The Public Domain: if the creator of a work relinquishes all his rights to his intellectual property, it enters the public domain and can be used by others to create derivative works or profit from it without payment of any fees or need for some form of license.

License: many creators who wish to share their intellectual property with others will give away limited rights that allow the user to do a range of things - but still maintain overall control of the way their work is used. Many open source software developers will use the GNU Public License (GPL) as a framework for stating how their work can be used.

Open source software does not have to be synonymous with poorly written undocumented utilities that nobody else wants. Here are a few of my favourites:

Open Office: a fully-fledged office suite, word-processor, spreadsheet, presentation software and graphics package. The fact that these programs will export both PDF format to be read by Adobe Acrobat reader and SWF flash files for use on the web makes them incredibly useful to me. They are the main application software that I use on my laptop.

The GIMP: an image processing package with enough features to rival Photoshop. For younger artists, my daughters love Tux Paint with its variety of stamps and special features.

Moodle: an open source content management system specifically designed for educators. There are plenty of other open source CMS packages available for blogging or running your own web portal.

David Hellam is an international educator, currently working on a project at http://www.educator.pro to build a homepage for the professional educator.

The Internet is a vast resource of information and users all over the world are able to download whatever programs they see fit onto their computer. Unfortunately, having an open connection to the world also can be dangerous in today’s online environment, particularly when you look at the rise of adware & spyware applications that can be downloaded onto your computer without you even knowing it.

You may have heard about spyware and adware from some of the tech geeks at work, but what does it actually mean to you? Surely, these kind of things only affect business computers and servers, right? Wrong. Spyware and adware can be downloaded onto any computer, regardless of whether you’re at work or surfing the web at home. It doesn’t even sometimes come from what you would think would be the most likely candidates: porn sites, gambling sites & other illegal material. The unfortunate part is that sometimes companies that we think to be reputable can actually be using spyware as well to track your every move.

Spyware and adware do not work like a typical virus. Normally they are not as malicious, but they can be just as annoying and incredibly difficult to get rid of. They usually end up appearing on your web browser as a new toolbar up on top, and/or triggering random pop-up ads at certain times. What’s happening is these programs are being downloaded and keeping track of your information: the web sites you’ve been to, your search history in Google, Yahoo or another search engine….possibly even your passwords. They’re also doing things that use up your computer’s valuable resources or hijacking your homepage and switching it to some random search site automatically.

You can quickly see what a nuisance this can be, particularly if you end up having a lot of these programs downloaded to your computer. Such applications, when triggered almost simultanously, can cause you serious problems and a lot of time and effort in repair after the fact. Fortunately, however, there are many spyware removers and anti spyware programs that are available to you that you can download; some even have free trial versions. Nine times out of ten, they are very simple to use and can root out files and cookies on your computer that are associated with spyware.

That said, once you download one of these applications, you must be vigilant and remember to use the program on at least a weekly basis in order to avoid further outbreaks. It helps to download a spyware remover program that also contains an adware shield of some sort that is running in the background and blocks the download of a new piece of spyware before it occurs.

Also, be sure to always know what kind of a link you’re clicking before you click on it, even if it is from someone you think you know. Usually, spam e-mails contain “click here” links that will download some piece of spyware, but your friend might send you a link on AIM or something without even knowing that it is a link to download spyware. These incidents are more common than you might think. Again, a spyware remover program that runs in the background can be of great help here.

If you know how to protect your computer from spyware before it gets downloaded, then you’ll be much better off, and you’ll be able to surf the web freely and safely without having to call up the PC tech place down the street to fix your computer for outrageous fees.

Blair MacGregor is the webmaster & publisher of www.anti-spyware-center.com which provides reviews of the latest Spyware Removers and brings you current and up-to-date news on the adware and spyware scene.

On August 8 2005, Macromedia announced it’s release of Macromedia Studio 8. This was an improvement of it’s already popular MX2004 Version.

I have been using the new Dreamweaver 8 for the last few weeks and have observed noticeable improvements that I will describe here.

The first improvement that i noticed was the new top and side rulers. This is very helpful in lining up table and layers accurately.

Also, If you like to work with the code, Dreamweaver has a new feature where you can compress a certain line of code and hide it on the left hand pane. This allows you to hide code that you are not working with, and open it up at anytime if you decide to play with it.

One of the best new features is actually something I had a small gripe with in MX2004. In the previous version, when updating your site with the server, you had to sit there and wait while it uploads all your files. The new version fixes this. In Version 8, you can upload your entire site, AND continue working while your files upload in the background. This is a great new feature.

A couple of other new features and improvements worth noting are:

1. The new CSS Panel - Improved editing and working with your .css styles.

2. The ability to zoom in and out of your webpage.

3. A new coding toolbar

If you haven’t already, I would recommend getting the new version of Macromedia Dreamweaver 8. You won’t be disappointed. Dreamweaver comes with some great tutorials as well. If you’re not familiar with the program, I would suggest going through all the tutorials.

Jason Cooper aka The Rich Nice Guy has been involved with Internet Marketing for a number of years and is an emerging force in the area. Visit http://www.therichniceguy.com to find out more! You may use this article as content for your website or ezine as long as this tagline remains unchanged.

We live in a post-industrial age where information is the coin of the realm. Knowledge is the most valuable asset that a business owns. For most businesses, that knowledge exists primarily in the heads of the people who work there. For entrepreneurs and sole practitioners, what’s in their head usually is the business. That’s both limiting and dangerous.

Let’s take the example of a successful management consultant. Drawing on her knowledge and experience, she’s able to hire herself out at a substantial hourly rate. The trouble is, every time she wants to make some money she has to trade away some of her time.

What happens when she goes on vacation and is no longer putting in time? Her income goes on vacation too. What happens when she’s sleeping, or when she gets sick, or when she wants to retire? As soon as she stops putting in time, she stops getting money.

Even if she could work 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, there is still a limit to how much money she can make simply because she can’t create more time. When you trade time for money, you put an automatic cap on your income potential.

Something else also starts happening to our consultant. The more successful she is, the more her services are in demand, the harder she works. Did you go into business to work long, hard hours for limited reward? I didn’t think so.

Information products create passive streams of revenue, that is, money that flows to you whether you’re working at your desk, lazing on the beach, or snoozing on the couch. How? You create the products once and then sell them over and over again. You make an initial investment of time and money and then reap the benefits in multiples. You can’t do that with time; you can’t sell the same hour twice.

– What Exactly is an Information Product? Quite simply, an information product is any chunk of knowledge that has been recorded in some fashion - whether that be in a print format, an audio format, or a video format - so that it can now be passed on to others.

There are dozens of ways to package and sell information. Some of the most common products are:

• Print books and e-books

• Booklets and special reports

• Manuals and workbooks

• Audio cassettes, CDs, or downloadable audio files

• Videotapes and DVDs

• Teleclasses

• Subscription-based web sites

The key is that you’re taking something intangible - the knowledge in your head - and turning it into something that others can enjoy and use even when you’re not around.

I have sometimes heard information products referred to as “artifacts.” This term, borrowed from the field of archaeology, captures the idea that an information product is something you leave behind for future generations.

Every process you employ to serve your clients, every piece of information you glean from media sources, every past experience you carry with you, every original thought you conjure up is a piece of information that can be recorded and shared. What’s stopping you?

About The Author

© 2003 Juiced Consulting.

Juiced Consulting helps business owners package what they know into information products - such as books, audiotapes and teleclasses - that they can sell to generate new business revenue. For a free newsletter and other resources, visit www.juicedconsulting.com; jtribe@juicedconsulting.com