Small Business Server Tips

Does your computer consulting business work with Microsoft® Small Business Server?

If so, then you definitely should stop by and visit this new site we’re putting together called Small Business Server Tips .

Although the site build out is still very much in the early stages, on Small Business Server Tips you can already find tips about Network Applications, Systems Configurations, Service Packs (SP's), Systems Integrators, and Computer Resellers.

Recommended Reading:

Small Business Server Tips

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Global "Digital Divide" Narrows

A study by the World Bank has found that the digital capabilities of the developing world are rapidly catching up to those of the developed world. Half the world now has access to land-based phone lines, and 77% have access to mobile networks. This surpasses a UN goal of 50% access by 2015. Africa in particular has become a booming mobile phone market, leapfrogging over traditional fixed-line telecommunications.

This is good news not only for people in developing countries, but the tech industry in general, as rapid growth in these regions will fuel the telecom business and offset more mature markets where growth is plateauing.

Source: Reuters (Yahoo!)

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Paper from Elephant Dung

If you can get past the "yuck factor," you must admit that making paper out of elephant dung -- or any other type of excrement -- has its upsides. The raw material, after all, is plentiful. Harvesting it is inexpensive and doesn't harm the environment, and it needs to be disposed of anyway. The end products, from stationery to notebooks to boxes, are even attractive:

This is true "thinking outside the box" (pun partially intended), and shows that not all future technology has to be "high tech."

Source: Core 77, Future Feeder

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When Mobile Becomes Essential

How would you feel if you lost your mobile device? Of course you'd be upset or irritated, but would you feel that a part of your life were missing? Increasingly, many mobile users would feel that a part of their world would be gone if they didn't have access to their devices.

Says researcher Michael Hulme, "If we go back five years, [mobile devices] used to be fairly functional. Today we're moving towards a real time of dependency, where if we lose our mobile we begin to feel cut off from our network of friends, cut off from our contacts, and absolutely disabled. The other thing is that the mobile is very much a device of control. We are using it to control our relationships with others, how others contact us, and increasingly to control information."

A sign of a maturing technology is a certain level of dependence on it. It becomes so deeply ingrained in the way we function that losing it is incredibly disruptive. It also speaks to the growing functionality of mobile devices. As cell phones and PDAs converge, they become exponentially useful -- and, obeying Metcalfe's Law of expanding networks, the more people we know with mobile devices, the more empowering the network becomes.

Another sign that mobile devices are maturing is the arrival of second-generation mobile applications. As with the early Internet, much of the early mobile technology was experimental or "gee whiz" in nature, and not well thought through. Now, though, developers are applying lessons learned to applications that meet real user needs.

Yet one more sign that mobile devices have moved from the realm of elective to essential: the Australian government is lending cell phones to the homeless to help them find jobs.

Sources: BBC, Smart Mobs

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Gangs Going Global

Gangs are back in the news now that First Lady Laura Bush has made combatting them a personal priority. They are also attracting the attention of the FBI, which is taking a new look at gang dynamics, even though gang numbers are declining in the US.

A growing concern among law enforcement is not gangs' raw membership, but the nature of their reach. The Internet is providing gangs with a tool for worldwide networking, recruitment and international alliances. One extremely violent gang in particular, Mara Salvatrucha (MS), has roots in El Salvador but has spread stateside from the Salvadoran community in Los Angeles to Virginia. Even more concerning to the FBI, some MS members reportedly have links to al-Qaeda. As a result, gangs are becoming a focus of counterterrorism as well as anti-crime measures.

Sources: The Economist, Futurismic

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Pervasive Patient Monitoring

For at-risk patients who need their care monitored round-the-clock yet aren't sick enough to require hospitalization, pervasive monitoring is a solution to help both patients and doctors. Pervasive monitoring goes beyond traditional telemedicine to provide clinicians with a real-time portrait of patients' conditions.

IBM is developing a "mobile health toolkit" that links a variety of monitoring devices via Bluetooth and Java-based middleware.

The system can monitor a variety of conditions, including blood pressure, weight, glucose, and whether a patient takes his or her medications on time. The system uses open architecture, so that new devices can be added easily as they become available.

Source: ERCIM News

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Talking Drug Labels

A Thailand firm has developed a system that allows patients to listen to medicine labels to learn prescribed doses, interactions and warnings. The device can also "speak" the information in multiple languages.

The system combines an RFID chip on the label with a listening device that correlates the medicine with an information database. The system has promising applications for visually impaired patients and for those who do not read the language in which the medicine label is printed.

Source: we make money not art

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The Future, Past Tense

For a fun Friday afternoon diversion, visit David Szondy's Tales of Future Past, an archive of "future" visions of past eras, complete with vintage artwork and insightful commentary (much of it noting the practical reasons why these futures never came to pass). If you're wondering what happened to the flying car, robot servant, domed city or condo on Venus you were promised way back when, this is the place to look.

For those old enough to remember the '60s TV show Thunderbirds, the site also contains some great images.

Source: Future Feeder

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Deliberative Democracy

The rise of blogs and Internet-based fundraising during the 2004 Presidential campaign may only be the beginning of a new approach to democracy that is potentially transforming. Called deliberative democracy, it emphasizes shared knowledge and collaborative decision-making above traditional top-down politics. Technology plays a role, to be sure, but the emphasis is on the personal connections, consensus decision making, and free exchange of resources.

Perhaps, in our current contentious political environment, deliberative democracy may offer some solutions. Exactly how we would reconcile deliberative democratic principles in representative forms of government -- in which elected officials deliberate (theoretically) on the behalf of their constituents -- remains to be seen. Are there areas in which deliberative democracy would work better than in others? How, for instance, would deliberative democracy respond to a national emergency or a military action, where deliberation could cause costly delays? The Co-Intelligence Institute and the website Innovations in Democracy has links to dozens of resources and deliberative democracy experiments.

Source: WorldChanging

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Turn On, Tune In, Get Healthy

Most people don't consider possible medical benefits of LSD, peyote, MDMA (aka "ecstasy") and other hallucinogenic drugs. However, before advocating the recreational benefits of psychedelics, Dr. Timothy Leary first experimented with them as a way to treat alcoholism. Now, a new generation of scientists is studying how psychedelic drugs could be used to treat everything from substance abuse to severe migraine headaches.

Research into the health benefits of psychedelics, of course, largely dried up when the substances were criminalized in the late 1960s. Since then, research groups advocating study of the health benefits of psychoactive drugs have been petitioning governments around the world for changes to the law.

A study of peyote use among residents of a Navajo reservation (who are permitted by US law to use the drug for religious purposes) found that peyote is safer than previously believed. It also showed promise in preventing recovering alcoholics on the reservation from relapsing. Similar studies have been conducted in Russia, where access to some psychedelic drugs was legal until recently.

Source: New Scientist

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U.S. House Approves Electronic ID Card Standard

Earlier this month, and with relatively little fanfare, the US House of Representatives approved the Real ID Act of 2005, which would set a national standard for issuing identification cards such as driver's licenses. To comply, all cards would have to include a digital photo, anticounterfeiting measures, and "machine-readable technology" that could be either a magnetic strip, barcode or RFID chip. The Department of Homeland Security will draft the specific requirements later.

The bill also requires that state DMVs link their databases to create a searchable national record. States failing to comply could lose highway funds.

Compliant cards would be required for entry into airports, courthouses, national parks and any other facility to which the federal government controls access. Such cards will invariably become the "gold standard" for personal identification, meaning that having a vaild card will be essential for conducting a host of activities, regardless of whether they involve the federal government.

The Bush White House strongly supports the Real ID Act, making it a near certainty that President Bush will sign the act into law once it passes the Senate.

Needless to say, the bill has evoked strong opposition among civil libertarians, gun activists and states-rights advocates. The Electronic Frontier Foundation has posted numerous resources and arguments against such a national ID initiaitive.

Sources: C|Net, Futurismic

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A Computer Consulting Company with a "Secure" Niche

Looking for a good VERY "secure" niche for your computer consulting company?

Check out what this computer consulting company in St. Louis is doing to help keep clients' networks safe and secure.... and they're getting some nice PR out of the deal too.

see Hacking away at the hackers
(By Jerri Stroud Of the Post-Dispatch 02/17/2005)

Of course, done right this kind of niche marketing can easily be parlayed into a HUGE, extremely profitable niche through
1) niche networking and relationship marketing
2) niche trade shows
3) niche topic-specific seminars and speaking engagements
4) niche direct mail campaigns

To learn how to get started executing your own niche marketing campaign for your computer consulting company, I've arranged for you to get a free 45-minute training session from the Sweet Spot Clients teleseminar series.
see http://www.sweetspotclients.com/

"Learn How You Can More Effectively Target Your Marketing to Reach the Most Profitable Small Business IT Services Opportunities"

Go check it out now and learn how you too can tackle a great little niche like this for your computer consulting company.
see Targeted Marketing Strategies for Small Business IT Services
at http://www.sweetspotclients.com/

Best,
Joshua Feinberg

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Chillin' for 30,000 Years

Life is at once a delicate and a remarkably resilient thing. Take, for instance, Carnobacterium pleistocenium, a bacterium from the age of wooly mammoths. Recently, US scientists published a paper describing how they thawed out a sample of this organism that had been frozen for 30,000 years in Alaska permafrost -- and how it began swimming around as if it had been born yesterday!

Such tolerance to deep freezing raises the possibility that life could be preserved in extremely harsh climates -- most notably, Mars, where frozen oceans were recently discovered. Could primitive life forms lie frozen just under the Martian surface, waiting for an eventual thaw? Could the same be said of other worlds, such as Jupiter's moon Europa? If nothing else, this chilled-out bacterium may be able to teach us something about how life could be preserved at very low temperatures over long periods.

Source: CNN.com

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Doctors Use Camera Phones for Telemedicine

Physicians in Switzerland are studying the use of camera phones for diagnosing serious wounds in patients in remote locations. A nurse, for instance, could take a picture and send it to a doctor who otherwise could not reach the patient.

In experiments, the diagnoses from doctors who viewed injuries via camera phone agreed with those from doctors who saw the injuries in person. Before being used in the US, HIPAA and other electronic privacy issues would have to be addressed, but the potential exists for making "virtual house calls."

Source: CNN.com
telemedicine

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Consumers Want Cell Phones With Style

It's no longer enough to have a cell phone with the latest technology or the most features. A recent poll conducted by IDC found that the majority of those surveyed believe that status and style are the most important considerations when choosing cell phones.

Sleek design, fashion labels like Baby Phat and Escada, and celebrity endorsements all help to give cell phones a "cool" cachet. Advertising -- both direct and indirect -- also sways opinion, as the image of talking on a cell phone is replacing cigarette smoking as a way to imply coolness. Maybe the American Lung Association ought to market a line of designer phones...

Sources: Wired, Techdirt
cell phones fashion

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Robots that Truly Walk Like Humans

One of the toughest challenges in robotics is building humanoid forms that can walk upright on two legs like humans. Now, researchers at Delft University in the Netherlands, Cornell University and MIT may have solved the problem.

The key is a line of technology called passive-dynamic walking, which uses gravity to drive a bipedal device down a slope. Passive-dynamic technology does not attempt to control all joints in the movement, but allows most of the joints to hang free.

The robots developed by the three universities solve a variety of other problems related to balance, stride, foot size, stopping, steering, shock absorption and even walking backward. In addition to use in humanoid robotics, the research shows promise in helping to develop better prosthetic legs and feet. However, practical applications are likely at least 20 years out.

Source: Technology Research News
robotics

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UN Releases Latest World Demographic Trends

The United Nations has released its latest "World Demographic Trends" report, current up through 2004. Among the more interesting statistics:

• The current world population stands at about 6.5 billion people, will likely reach 7 billion by 2012, and should peak at 8.9 billion by 2050, assuming birth and mortality rates remain on track.
• The vast majority of the world's population in 2050 will live in the developing world.
• Ten percent of the world's population is aged 60 or older this year. This demographic will more than double by 2050.
• By 2030, 60% of the world's population will live in cities.
• Tokyo, currently the world's most populous city, will remain so in 2015. Mumbai (Bombay) and Delhi in India will surpass Mexico City in size to become the second and third largest cities, respectively. The New York-Newark metro area -- America's most populated city -- will be the world's sixth most populated city in 2015.
  
• Of the 22 most populated cities in 2015, only four will be in North America or Europe.
  

Source: WorldChanging

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Computer Consultants Secrets

re: Computer Consultants Secrets.com

Here's a new site for Computer Consultants Secrets that has some helpful articles.

It includes topics like Computer Consultants Business tips and articles for Independent Computer Consultants. So you want to learn some of these computer consultants secrets for yourself, go check out http://www.computerconsultantssecrets.com

Best wishes for growing your computer consultant business!

Joshua Feinberg

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Satellite Work Centers Ease Commutes

Organizations that want to give their employees more commuting flexibility are considering opening satellite offices that give workers office space while lessening their commuting time. Many of these offices are designed for telecommuters who mainly work at home or on the road, and who use them only when needed. The offices contain full Internet, video conferencing and electronic whiteboard technology, and offer a variety of office setups, from traditional closed-door offices to "hoteling" arrangements for those who need only a place to sit temporarily. The Canadian firm SuiteWorks is one company specializing in constructing satellite office space for teleworkers.

Source: Herman Trend Alert
telecommuting

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Your Computer Consulting Business vs. Microsoft's Partner Agenda

This week's CRN cover story by Barbara Darrow reports, "The big question among partners at all levels of Microsoft's year-old Next Generation Partner Program is whether or not they can actually profit from selling and implementing Microsoft software."

See CRN Reality Check: Next Generation Gap

So at the end of the day, if you plan to continue to sell Microsoft software into your local SMB market, you must learn how to put your computer consulting company's financial interests first.

In other words, it's more critical than ever that you focus on seeking out the "Sweet Spot of Small Business Computer Consulting".

To learn more about how your computer consulting business can dramatically increase its profitability by focusing on the "Sweet Spot of Small Business Computer Consulting", go ahead right now and listen to the free training recording on 5 Easy Ways to
Grow Your Computer Consulting Business at http://www.computerconsultingkit.com .

Best wishes for great computer consulting success,

Joshua Feinberg, author
Computer Consulting Kit
http://www.computerconsultingkit.com

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Japanese Smart Phones, Payment Systems Converge

Early next year, Japanese commuters will be able to pay for their train fare by cell phone, when the Suica electronic payment system for trains starts supporting Sony IC chips embedded in DoCoMo phones.

Suica, a widespread smart-card system for paying train fare, was rolled out by the East Japan Railway Co. three years ago. By making Suica compatible with Sony's FeliCa IC chip, the system links two important e-payment systems, and could lead to more ways to pay for products and services via cell phone. Testing of the system will begin this March.

Source: CNN.com

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SMS Disrupts the Greeting Card Business

When you care enough to send the very best... text it!

The continued popularity of SMS and text messaging in India appears to be threatening the greeting card business in that country. After stagnating for the last few years, greet card sales saw a 10% decline last year. Meanwhile, an estimated one billion text messages were exchanged among Indian mobile phone users between Christmas and New Year's last year.

Observers speculate that young people in India are simply foregoing greeting cards in favor of SMS greetings. Plus, a recent hike in postage rates there has made SMS more attractive. It's likely that this trend will spread to other countries where SMS is catching on. In the US, where SMS is not as popular as it is elsewhere, web- and IM-based greetings could similarly cut into greeting card sales, especially among young people.

Sources: Textually.org, Techdirt

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A Self-Fulfilling Prophecy

Like many technology-oriented blogs and websites, we've mentioned the risk of cellphone hacking before. Now it's finally happened in a way that's made national news.

By now you've surely heard about Paris Hilton's T-Mobile Sidekick cell phone being hacked, and the numbers of her celebrity friends being posted on the Internet for all to see... and dial. Some of the victimized celebritites reported receiving hundreds of calls.

UPDATE: While the Hilton hack remains under investigation, speculation abounds about how it might have been pulled off (Hint: It's deceptively simple, and offers some lessons in personal online security).

Gaining less attention was a similar story of much greater consequence to average people. The data aggregator ChoicePoint had said that some of its confidential data had been compromised, affecting as many as 500,000 people in all 50 states. Among the information types at risk are Social Security numbers, birth dates and drivers license numbers, putting them at risk of identity theft. ChoicePoint has said that it will notify all affected individuals by mail.

Sources: MSNBC, Computerworld

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Will "Smart Carts" Lead to Smarter Shopping?

Imagine a shopping cart -- an actual, not a virtual one -- that can memorize your grocery list, send orders to the pharmacy and the deli, and alert you to other offers. If this appeals to you, then you might be in luck.

Fujitsu is piloting a new shopping cart technology called the U-Scan Shopper, which allows shoppers to download their shopping lists from their Bluetooth-enabled PDAs to the "smart cart." The carts will cost about $1,200 each.

The concept has promise, but anyone familiar with grocery stores can already spot the downsides. Stolen carts are a perennial problem for retailers, who aren't going to appreciate losing $1,200 every time a U-Scan disappears. Secondly, there's usability. From the description, one must be fairly tech savvy to make use of the U-Scans. Grandma simply won't be bothered. And since the system relies on Bluetooth-enabled PDAs, only stores in relatively affluent communities will be interested.

Third, my sense is that the U-Scan is trying to latch on to an existing process (shopping) rather than redesigning the process altogether. As a result, it only adds a layer ot complexity to the process. Perhaps something like U-Scan will make more sense once more grocery items are tagged with RFID tags. Or, skip the U-Scan altogether and make the grocer's system work with shoppers' PDAs. Stores could give away free software that would allow shoppers to maintain their grocery lists; it will be cheaper for the stores and just as easy for the customers. And store clerks won't have to fish $1,200 shopping carts out of drainage ditches.

Sources: eWeek, Smart Mobs

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Peggy Noonan on Blogging

An excellent summary of the current state of blogging from Wall Street Journal contributor Peggy Noonan, which at the very least shows that she gets it. Noonan also offers some predictions about the future of blogging (some of which we've mentioned here already).

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Is UMA the Missing Link in Wireless Connectivity?

Mobile phone manufacturers are beginning to experiment with a new protocol called Unlicensed Mobile Access (UMA), which allows smart phones and other devices to switch between WiFi and cellular networks. Most of the big players in the cellular space (Nokia, Motorola, Cingular, T-Mobile, etc.) are working to make UMA an industry standard.

If this happens, and if UMA works as advertised, it could have a revolutionary impact on mobile devices of all sorts. Enterprises, for instance, could create "voice over WiFi" networks that could lower costs while allowing smart devices to live up to their potential. It also could allow laptops to go online even when no wireless hotspots are available. The handoff between the WiFi and cellular networks, however, would have to be seamless.

Incidentally, the "unlicensed" in the UMA name refers to the portion of the wireless spectrum for which the FCC does not require a broadcast license.

Source: Russell Beattie Notebook, Phonescoop.com

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America Through the Eyes of Others

One of the dramatic effects of the Internet is how it has shrunken our world and made a reality of Marshall McLuhan's theorized "global village." No website illustrates this better than WatchingAmerica.com, which aggregates news stories about the US from non-US news sources around the world. Many stories focus on topics that have largely been ignored by both the US mainstream media and blogs, while others provide a surprising perspective on how the world perceives America. Most articles have English translations.

Source: Futurismic

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Random House Embraces M-Learning

Publishing giant Random House has acquired a minority share in a start-up company called Vocel, which offers educational content to cell phone users. Random House will license two of its product lines to Vocel for cell-phone distribution this summer.

One, Living Language, is a foreign language self-study program. The other, Prima Games, features strategy guides to popular video games. Though most of the content will be text, Living Language will allow users to listen to the correct pronunciation of words. Vocel already offers SAT preparation guides via cell phone.

The services will be available for a monthly fee and will initially be available to Verizon customers, though Vocel is negotiating with other carriers to adopt the service. It will be interesting to see how quickly these services are combined with phone-based video such as VCAST, or whether corporate e-learning developers will take notice.

Sources: New York Times, Smart Mobs
e-learning m-learning cell phones

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How Computer Consultants Close More Sales

Re: how computer consultants can keep competitors away their best prospects.. and close more sales

Have you ever lost a project that you bid on to a competitor (i.e. another computer consultant)?

C’mon... be honest.

Listen, it’s no big deal to just lose a computer consulting project or two, a few times a year. No one, not even me, has a 100% batting average :-)

But what happens when we’re not talking about losing one or two projects a year? What happens when you’re losing one or two computer consulting projects a month that way? Non-sense you say?

Have you ever taken time to follow-up on EVERY computer consulting proposal or price quote you’ve put out there to your small business prospects?

While a significant percentage of your computer consulting prospects (perhaps 1/4 to 1/3) may be professional procrastinators and decide to do nothing...

The vast majority of your prospects will end up hiring someone’s computer consulting company to do the job. But do you know why someone else’s computer consultant company is getting that job instead of your firm?

One very simple reason...

Your computer consultant competitor cared enough to follow-up!

It's really that simple. Whether it was a phone call, an e-mail, a personal note, an impromptu visit...

Your competitor happened to be in the right place, at the right time... when your computer consulting prospect’s server went down for the 3rd time this month.

Now why didn’t your prospect, that you haven’t spoken to in 6 months, remember how hard you worked on that computer consulting proposal?

And why didn’t your computer consulting prospect remember to call you?

Like they say: Out of sight, out of mind. You snooze, you lose.

So if you want to make sure that your more assertive computer consultant competitors don’t steal away your best computer consulting prospects, make sure that YOUR computer consulting firm has at least a decent follow-up process. And for that matter a decent overall sales process.

To help you get a better grasp on the entire computer consultants sales process, from generating qualified computer consulting leads all the way through to signing up steady clients on computer consultant service agreements, be sure to take advantage of the tools in the Computer Consulting 101 Professional Kit.

(It's like the next best thing to having me out there in the field with you, going out on computer consultants sales calls.)

And by the way, if you don’t yet own the Computer Consulting 101 Professional Kit and you order yours today, I will be happy to share with you MY personal list of 29 Reasons to Stay in Touch. So you too can have a better, more thorough follow-up process, WITHOUT alienating the prospect.

Remember, you CAN’T just keep calling and asking, "Are you ready to buy yet?"

To get my checklist of 29 VALUE-ADDED reasons for you to stay in touch with your best computer consulting prospects and influencers over an extended period of time, just put a note in the comments field of your Order Form requesting a copy of “29 Reasons to Stay in Touch” http://www.computerconsultingkit.com

(But fair warning: I don't want too many people getting their hands on this checklist, because it will lessen its value. So we can only honor this offer of parting with “29 Reasons to Stay in Touch” for the next 10 computer consultants to order.)

So you won’t have to worry anymore about losing your best computer consultant prospects to your computer consulting competitors.

Here’s to YOUR great computer consulting success!

Joshua Feinberg, author
Computer Consulting 101 Professional Kit
http://www.computerconsultingkit.com

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Computer Consulting Secrets

Here's a cool new resource on computer consulting secrets that I think you'll really enjoy.

Check it out when you get a moment.



Computer Consulting Secrets

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Computer Consultants and IT Certifications

If you want to get into small business computer consulting and you're not yet certified, don't delay on account of having no certifications.

Otherwise, six weeks, six months or even more can pass...

and yes, you will have some pretty impressive certificates to hang on your office wall
(which clients most likely won't even visit)

...and you'll pick up some equally impressive-sounding initials to attach after the last-name comma on your business card.

But you still won't have any paying clients.

And let's call it as it is
...without paying clients, you don't have a business.


So, my advice, while you work on selling and servicing your first few clients, put some time aside to at least get an entry-level certification... which can be a great confidence booster if nothing else.

But by all means, don't let a lack of certifications hold you back from getting started in computer consulting.

In small business computer consulting, good "people" skills, solid technical skills and great references often count for MUCH more than just an impressive sounding credential on your business card.

So if you'd like to get out of the making-excuses business, and actually start profiting more fully from small business computer consulting, you should definitely get my step-by-step roadmap and start today. As a good starting point, be sure to listen to 5 Easy Way sto Grow Your Computer Consulting Business (a free 1 hour training audio) available online right now at http://www.computerconsultingkit.com

Best regards,
Joshua Feinberg
author of Computer Consulting 101 Professional Kit
http://www.computerconsultingkit.com/

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Reminder: Free Computer Consulting Teleseminar Tonight

Free Computer Consulting Teleseminar Tonight

http://www.computerconsultingkit.com/ask021705/

Just in case you missed this yesterday...
We're filling up fast and I don't want you to miss out.

The call's tonight (Thursday, February 17th) @ 9pm Eastern.

Topic: How You Can Find More Steady, High-Paying Clients

For: Small Business Computer Consultants, Network Integrators, Resellers and Solution Providers

Date: Thursday evening, February 17th

Time: 9pm Eastern (that's 8pm Central/7pm Mountain/6pm Pacific)

Cost: Complimentary Preview Call (It's just a regular phone call to our telephone bridge line vendor in Minnesota.)

Where: Attend from the comfort of your home or office

The only catch: the call's limited to the first 50 registrants, first-come, first-served.

So lock-in your seat now, while space is still available, at http://www.computerconsultingkit.com/ask021705/

We hope to see you on the call TONIGHT (Thursday, February 17th) at 9pm Eastern!

Best wishes for tremendous success in your consultingbusiness,

Joshua Feinberg, Computer Consulting Kit

PS: If you already own the Computer Consulting 101Professional Kit, or most of its contents, this call may be a good review for you. However, this preview call is PRIMARILY intended for those consultants who have not yet invested in our premium business development resource kit... and need some additional sampling time and pre-sales guidance. http://www.computerconsultingkit.com/ask021705/

PPS: Do you need more steady, high-paying clients? Then join me at 9pm Eastern tonight for an information-packed teleseminar. Reserve your place now at http://www.computerconsultingkit.com/ask021705/

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The Age of Creativity

Hugh MacLeod argues that we are entering a new age of creativity, demanding more from both ourselves and our work:

We are turning off the TV. We are using the internet, reading books, attending museums, buying paint, taking night classes and purchasing art in unprecedented numbers. We suddenly feel alive and excited about life in a way that would have seemed crazy a generation ago.

We are learning to sing.

We are starting to write in record number. We have discovered blogs. 40,000 of us start new ones every day. Will it make money? Who cares? This isn't about money; this is about getting our thoughts together.

Our thoughts are coming together because we are no longer asleep. We're not even sleepy.

I've thought about this as well, and it does seem we're indeed becoming more creative... mainly because it's easier than ever to be creative and share our creations with others. Creative people have all kinds of cheap, easy-to-use tools to express themselves. Writers have blogs. Want to publish that novel of yours? Just convert it to a PDF and upload it to your website. Want to be a radio commentator? Start a podcast. Give that business idea of yours a shot online; it might just be the next eBay! The musically inclined can buy sound processing and editing software at Wal-Mart, produce their own music, share their professional grade MP3s and e-mail them to P. Diddy. The same goes for budding photographers and filmmakers. As well as creative types who have no precedent, such as electronic game creators.

All this, of course, has its dark side; the thugs in Iraq who upload video of themselves murdering their victims probably think they're pretty "creative" too. But hopefully, the good will outweigh the bad, and we'll continually think up new tools to help express ourselves.

Source: Innovation Weblog

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Bloggers as Paparazzi

Digital entrepreneur and Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban is not shy about speaking his mind. Most recently, he's taken on bloggers, comparing us to the paparazzi photographers who hound celebrities.

The comparison is closer than you might think; after all, as a pioneer in online media, Cuban knows a thing or two about cyberspace. His advice to those threatened by bloggers provides insight into a possible future scenario for the blogosphere:

There is... a way for the gatekeepers [mainstream media] to deal with the bloggers. A simple way.

Recognize them. Give them respect. Celebrities can’t keep photographers out of their bushes no matter how hard they try. The gatekeepers won’t be able to keep the bloggers out either. Instead they should invite them in.

Not 1. Not 2. But several from both sides. Bring in the more popular blogs that like you, and the same number of those that don’t. Give them as much access as you give the NY Times, Wash Post. Don’t muzzle them, let them write

I will tell you exactly what will happen next. The blogs you invite in will still try to trip you up, but they will quickly morph and act like traditional media. When you screw up , they will tell you when it happens and give you a chance to comment and respond. They will like being on the inside and adjust to try to stay there.

Cuban's prediction that a few big blogs will dominate the blogosphere is a logical if cynical assumption. It's only a matter of time before we see "celebrity bloggers" start showing up at movie premieres and partying at the hottest clubs -- the Barbara Walters of bloggers, whose power comes from their rich and famous connections. However, such domination will only last until the next new disruptive medium emerges. Also, the blogosphere is not like traditional media in that the big players can easily shut out the little guys. Bloggers don't need to spend millions on printing presses, distribution channels or transmitters. As long as blogging tools remain affordable or even free (thank you, Blogger!), there will always be some tenacious little guy with a big scoop or a new angle.

Source: BuzzMachine

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The Undersea Luxury Hotel

OK, so you've traveled all over the world, been there, done that, and you're getting impatient waiting for your seat on SpaceShipOne. Enterpreneur and marine enthusiast Bruce Jones may just have the perfect destination for you.

Jones, who made his fortune in private submarines, is developing the Poseidon Undersea Resort, a luxury hotel in the Bahamas. What will make the Poseidon special is its peculiar location -- it will be submerged 50 feet underwater, with the most expensive rooms completely surrounded by ocean.

With rates priced at $1,500 a night, the Poseidon won't likely appeal to the Motel 6 crowd. Rooms will include hot tubs and lights for illuminating the surrounding sea.

Jones has so far put $40 million into the venture, and expects the Poseidon to open on schedule next year. Jones is at an advantage here because he has his own money to invest; similar undersea ventures over the decades have gone nowhere. A similar hotel, the Hydropolis, is being built off the cost of Dubai in the Persian Gulf, but it is reportedly stalled for lack of funds. However, if the Poseidon is a hit, expect resort builders to take notice very quickly... and consider taking the plunge themselves.

Sources: ABC News, Cool Hunting

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Free Computer Consulting Teleseminar

Free Computer Consulting Teleseminar...

this Thursday evening, 2/17 at 9pm Eastern

How You Can Find More Steady, High-Paying Computer Consulting Clients

Do you want to learn how you can get more steady, high-paying computer consulting clients? If so, then please clear your calendar and join us this Thursday evening, February 17th at 9pm Eastern for a free 60-minute teleseminar, where I'll reveal howyou can get more steady, high-paying computer consultingclients.

The only catch? Our phone bridge capacity maxes out at 50 registrants (first-come, first-served). So if you want to attend, just turn up your PC speakers, visit this page and lock-in your reservation right now.

http://www.computerconsultingkit.com/ask021705/

We hope to see you on the call this Thursday evening, February 17th at 9pm Eastern!

Best wishes for tremendous success in your consultingbusiness,

Joshua Feinberg, Computer Consulting Kit

PS: If you already own the Computer Consulting 101Professional Kit, or most of its contents, this call may be a good review for you. However, this preview call is PRIMARILY intended for those consultants who have not yet inve.sted in our premium business development resource kit... and need some additional sampling time and pre-sales guidance.

http://www.computerconsultingkit.com/ask021705/

PPS: Remember, our phone bridge capacity maxes out at 50 callers.

So register right now at http://www.computerconsultingkit.com/ask021705/

PPPS: You can even tell a friend about this free special event by clicking on the little envelope icon in the bottom right hand corner of this post.

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The Power of Presence

Ever wonder if instant messaging has any real advantages over e-mail and cell phones? It does... but it's not the messaging part that gives IM an edge. It's presence awareness. In an IM client, one can see whether one's "buddies" (friends, family members, co-workers, etc.) are available. Most IM tools allow users to specify what they're doing at any given moment (out of office, on the phone, at lunch, in the bathroom, whatever), which alone gives folks on their buddy lists a lot of information.

Now, developers are looking to apply presence tools to other forms of communication. For e-mail, there's Convoq ASAP, a web conferencing tool that allows users to embed links in their e-mail messages letting recipients know if that user is available (similar to the way Yahoo! integrates its e-mail and messenger tools). Even phones will be able to apply presencing features with what is essentially beefed-up Caller ID.

Presence can be added to most forms of communications technology. With RFID tags, presence can be automatically integrated; an IM tool can tell your buddies not just that you've stepped away from your desk, but exactly where you are in the building. Coupling that with GPS tracking can take the concept to a ridiculous and unsettling (but not implausible) extreme.

The real question is going to come when we've decided we have a little too much presence in our lives. How are we going to turn off presence tools, or at least control what they say? Will we, as individuals, have the right to control our own presence, turning it on and off at will? And once we do that, will presence lose its effectiveness?

Source: C|Net
instant messaging

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Cosmetic Surgery as a Lifestyle

Medical technology and style have converged to elevate cosmetic surgery from a procedure or series of procedures to a comprehensive state of mind. If any proof of this is necessary, consider that several new magazines are being launched dedicated to the lifestyle of cosmetic surgery.

Earlier this year, New Beauty launched with stories about how to select the best spas, how to get rid of wrinkles, "the ultimate guide to breast augmentation," and the latest on laser treatments. A similar magazine, titled Plastique, has launched in Denmark.

Magazines are a bellwether of leading cultural trends, as they live and die by what fascinates the buying public at any given moment. Remember all the Internet-business mags that flourished and folded during the dotcom bubble? At the very least, cosmetic surgery publications prove that people are fascinated with cosmetic surgery. At most, they show that surgically improving one's self has become an experience. People don't get surgery to fix a flat chest, reduce wrinkles or suck out fat. They get it to attain a new self-image, to enter a world of sexy, beautiful and glamorous people. That's certainly not a bad thing, but it indicates that body modification is changing the way we view the human body.

Source: Boing Boing

cosmetic surgery magazines

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Motherhood is Driving Moms Crazy

Author Judith Warner's new book, Perfect Madness, is the cover story in this week's Newsweek. In her book, Warner talks about the struggles that today's mothers face in trying to raise families, hold down jobs and be the "perfect" moms. She notes that, 30 years after the feminist movement, our culture still does not support working parents (who, by the way, are working by necessity, not choice):

Women today mother in the excessive, control-freakish way that they do in part because they are psychologically conditioned to do so. But they also do it because, to a large extent, they have to. Because they are unsupported, because their children are not taken care of, in any meaningful way, by society at large. Because there is right now no widespread feeling of social responsibility—for children, for families, for anyone, really—and so they must take everything onto themselves. And because they can't, humanly, take everything onto themselves, they simply go nuts.

Warner also offers some solutions to help support parents... namely government- and business-driven initiatives. However -- and Warner acknowledges this -- the problem is a deep one within our culture. In the history of humanity, "working mothers" are nothing new, dating back to our hunting and gathering ancestors. But in the 20th century, we became affluent enough to allow women to stay at home full-time with their children. In a way, we've reverted back to the normal scheme of things. But the problems that Warner points out are very real, and will take a long time and a lot of work for our culture to solve.

Source: Newsweek

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Eco-Evangelism

Most people wouldn't confuse evangelical Christians with environmentalists. However, Joel Makower suggests that a new ethic toward environmental stewardship among evangelicals may be developing.

Historically, evangelicals have been opposed to ecology issues in part because of opposition to government regulation, suspicion that the eco movement is too leftist for their tastes, and their interpretation of Scripture that the world is humanity's to control unconditionally, and that Christ's imminent coming makes concern over conservation unnecessary. But now, prominent evangelicals are embracing environmentalist positions that, in may cases, put them at odds with the Bush administration.

The National Association of Evangelicals adopted an Evangelical Call to Civic Responsibility that states, in part: "We affirm that God-given dominion [over the earth] is a sacred responsibility to steward the earth and not a license to exploit or abuse the creation of which we are a part. We are not the owners of creation, but its stewards, summoned by God to 'watch over and care for it." And in October 2004, the well-known and influential evangelical magazine Christianity Today published an article voicing concern over global warming, urging more proactive measures to curb greenhouse gases, and even criticizing President Bush for ignoring the issue.

If these trends continue, they will go a long way toward de-politicizing environmental issues and getting everyone, regardless of political or religious persuasion, involved in protecting natural resources. Hopefully, someone in the White House will be listening...

UPDATE: WorldChanging has a followup post on the topic listing a number of faith-based environmental organizations, both Christian and non-Christian.

Source: WorldChanging
environment environmentalism ecology global warming evangelism evangelicals Christianity

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Define "Journalism"

David Folkenflick of NPR's Morning Edition discusses the current state of journalism in the wake of blogging, the 24-hour news cycle, partisan commentators, media figures who are paid to advance an agenda, and the general lack of confidence in today's reporting. (Audio file; supports RealPlayer and Windows Media Player)

Source: unmediated
journalism

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Outsourcing Surgery

The trend toward outsourcing to Asia is not stopping with IT. Increasingly, patients are travelling to India, Thailand and elsewhere for surgical procedures, paying a fraction of what they would pay in the West.

An echocardiogram that would cost $800 in the US costs only $16 in India, and a $200,000 heart surgery would run you only $6,700. Hospital systems such as Apollo Hospitals in India and Bumrungrad Hospital in Bangkok, Thailand, have begun to establish international reputations and run highly profitable operations.

If the US moves toward individual healthcare accounts, in which individuals will be responsible for saving and spending their own healthcare dollars, these very inexpensive Asian facilities might suddenly look very attractive, especially for complex, expensive procedures. US and European healthcare providers would need to re-evaluate their business models and work harder to either lower costs or attract patients.

Source: Bloomberg, Smart Mobs
healthcare

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Computer Consulting for "Big" Small Businesses

So now that we've addressed Computer Consulting for Micro Small Businesses and Computer Consulting for Sweet Spot Small Businesses, it's time to turn our attention to the next rung up on the ladder....

Computer Consulting for "Big" Small Businesses, or what many even consider tiny medium-sized or mid-sized businesses.

These next size up the account-sophistication-ladder is generally characterized by

• 50-250 PC's,
• 3 or more servers, and
• multiple locations.

(As a side-note, when Microsoft(r) released its Small Business Server(r) (SBS) 2003 suite, it upped the ante to a maximum of75 workstations on a single SBS network. So if your computer consultant businesses focuses on Microsoft Windows'(r) related platforms, bear that 75 workstation limit in mind.)

At this size, you're going to meet true dedicated IT managers with impressive professional IT credentials.

The IT manager (and perhaps a small IT department) will almost always handle the "generalist" work in-house.

While there are always exceptions, at this size, deep-niched specialists become more in demand than generalists and high-level certifications are much more valued.

(This is where someone will be genuinely impressed if you're triple or quadruple+ certified: Microsoft, Cisco, IBM ,Novell, Check Point, Red Hat, HP, etc.)

Bear in mind ... this is also a much more sophisticated, longer sales cycle and more complex account to manage, which only a small percentage of our customers choose to even get involvedwith.

To learn more about the distinctions between the different levels of small business computer consulting (by size), be sure to listen to 5 Easy Ways to Grow Your ComputerConsulting Business (a free 1 hour training audio) available online right now at http://www.computerconsultingkit.com

Best regards,

Joshua Feinberg

author of Computer Consulting 101 Professional Kit

http://www.computerconsultingkit.com/

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Are Men an Endangered Species?

Oxford University genetics professor Bryan Sykes has a startling thesis in his book Adam's Curse: A Future Without Men (2004, Norton). He states that the human Y chromosome has decayed so badly over the milennia that men will eventually be rendered sterile.

Don't worry, guys -- you're okay. It's your descendants you neeed to be worried about. By Sykes' calculation, fertility will drop to 1% of the present-day level within 5,000 generations. That's approximately 125,000 years from now.

Normally, this would spell the end of the species; Sykes believes that many have become extinct because of Y chromsome decay. But we humans have technology on our side -- and some choices to make.

One solution is to apply genetic engineering to repair the Y chromosome, ensuring that men remain fertile. The other, more radical notion is to abandon the natural methods of reproduction and conceive all future humans artificially. Researchers have found that it's not even necessary to have sperm to do this! By fusing two mouse eggs, researchers have created viable mouse embryos (though only one out of 457 egg fusions survived to adulthood).

The clincher with the latter method is that all offspring are female. Sykes speculates on what a women-only world would be like, though such a world would be totally dependent on genetic technology for its survival.

Needless to say, Sykes' theories are controversial. But they are exactly the type of deep futurism worth pondering.

Source: World Future Society
genetics

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African Labor Force Threatened By AIDS

So many people in sub-Saharan Africa are afflicted by HIV/AIDS that the disease is beginning to cut into the region's labor force. Within the next five years, the pool of working-age men and women in the hardest-hit areas will shrink by 9%... and could be cut by up to 40% by 2015.

This will not only affect multinational corporations in Africa looking to hire local workers, but may well affect the region's ability to develop economically. In response, some corporations are beefing up their healthcare offerings to employees. Developed countries may also find it beneficial invest in HIV/AIDS prevention in Africa to help affected areas become and remain economically viable.

Sources: United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, World Future Society
Africa AIDS

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Biodegradable Cell Phones

The last thing the world needs are more useless, outdated cell phones. But with the average cell phone user upgrading his or her model every 18 months, unwanted cell phones are beginning to cause a waste management problem. It seems that we'll be flooded with the things.

Or will we? Researchers at the University of Warwick in the UK have developed a new type of polymer cell phone casing that will break down into compost when discarded. In fact, their prototype can even contain a seed of the flower of your choice! So someday soon, instead of throwing your old phone in the trash, perhaps you'll simply plant it in your back yard and be rewarded with a lovely flower.

Sources: University of Warwick, World Future Society
cell phones recycling

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NASA: 2005 Could Be Warmest Year Ever

Between man-made carbon dioxide trapping heat in the atmosphere and a predicted weak El Nino, NASA climatologists are predicting that 2005 could be the warmest year ever recorded. The current record-holder is the year 1998.

Last year was the fourth warmest year recorded. The second and third warmest years were 2002 and 2003, respectively.

Source: CNN.com

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Orb Media Networks Your Devices

The San Jose Mercury News reviews a startup company called Orb Networks that is developing a service called Orb Media, which is designed to network all your digital devices -- PC, laptop, cell phone and PDA -- and allow you to access all your media anytime, anywhere.

The article says, "You could, for example, watch a Bay Area TV station's evening news show on your laptop in a New York hotel room, display family photos on your cell phone when visiting a friend's house, or listen to your music collection on your PDA using the WiFi wireless network at a neighborhood Starbucks. You can even, from a remote location, program your computer to record a TV show for later remote viewing."

Though the article determines that the bandwidth, computing power and price are currently out of most people's range, it suggests that Orb could be on to something truly big.

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Jeff Gannon is a Product of Disrupted Media

If anyone doubts that technology and our nation's growing political divisiveness have combined to alter news media, the recent controversy surrounding White House correspondent Jeff Gannon should be sufficient proof. Gannon, as you may be aware, resigned from his position as a correspondent for the conservative-leaning Talon News service after questions about his credentials were raised. Naturally, liberals and conservatives have very different takes on the matter. Timothy Karr of MediaCitizen has written an excellent comprehensive summary.

Politics aside, the Gannon controversy illustrates several points about how the media has changed in the past few years:

1. No one finds it remarkable that a news organization such as Talon is unabashedly conservative. More and more, news organizations will declare political allegiances rather than attempting to be "unbiased."
2. Talon wouldn't and couldn't exist without the Internet. Its main outlet is its website, from which webmasters and bloggers can easily reference posted stories. This increases Talon's reach exponentially.
3. The controversy has been magnified by bloggers of all political persuasions, thereby forcing the mainstream media to pay attention. Before the Internet, a story such as this would have been an obscure filler item, if it was covered at all. Since the 2004 Presidental election, we've seen the power of the blogosphere increase steadily, with no end in sight. In essence, bloggers have replaced many of the old-time beat reporters and "stringers" that were systematically eliminated from the mainstream press in waves of cost-cutting over the years. As media observer Daniel Conover writes, "It must be clear now that blogs and websites are providing the bulk of significant real-time reporting on MSM [mainstream media] matters. Those of us who work in the MSM and care about these issues turn to these 'non-official' sources to get the scoop on our industry, and I don't expect that to change any time soon."
4. It also raises the question of who qualifies as a legitimate journalist. Before the Internet, working for a legitimate print or broadcast news medium made one a journalist. It also helped to have a degree in journalism or a related subject. Today, we must ask ourselves whether bloggers qualify as journalists, and if so, which ones. Liberals will likely claim that conservative bloggers are bogus, and vice versa.
5. Controversies in this new age can take some particularly ugly turns. Gannon's detractors have linked him to ventures involving gay pornography and prostitution, while Gannon claims that his family members -- including his elderly mother -- have been harrassed since the story became national news. In this post-Monica Lewinsky era, a cardinal rule of politics is to tag your opponent to a sex scandal -- the kinkier, the better.
   

The Gannon incident is certainly not the last such controversy, as we seem to have entered a "perfect storm" of technological power, information reach and political friction.


Jeff Gannon politics blogging blogosphere media journalism

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Is FutureFashion the Future of Fashion?

As New York City immersed itself in Fashion Week, a novel fashion revue captured special attention. FutureFashion highlighted designs that featured recycled and organic fabrics. Less about technology than about sustainability and environmental awareness, FutureFashion featured the works of such noted designers as Oscar de la Renta, Derek Lam, Daryl K and Diane von Furstenberg.

The show featured pieces made out of organic wool, bamboo and hemp, as well as less orthodox materials such as recycled polyester.

For those seeking something more technologically oriented, Technology Enabled Clothing has received a patent for a "personal area network" -- essentially a jacket or vest in which the wearer can store and network a variety of personal electronic devices. Wires can be run throughout the garmet, enabling each device to interact and receive power.

Sources: TreeHugger, Smart Mobs
fashion

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Hormone Spray Increases Women's Sex Drive

An Australian company called Acrux has developed a testosterone-based spray that it says can increase women's libido. The spray was originally developed for post-menopausal women, but has been shown to work with women of all ages.

The spray is still in its trial stages, and will not likely appear on the market for several years. However, trials conducted so far are highly encouraging. Known side effects include an increase in facial hair, hair loss, oily skin and acne. (The good news: your wife's frisky in the bedroom again. The bad news: she's bald, has zits and is growing a beard...)

Aside from improving couples' love lives the way that Viagra benefitted men, the implications of such a drug are staggering. Could a hyper-concentrated dose turn the most frigid ice queen into a raving sex maniac? Could it be sprayed on someone unwittingly, thereby replacing roofies as the cad's dope of choice? Would it really improve relationships, or would a suddenly sex-charged woman be tempted to stray? And what could it's effect be if used on men?

Sources: BBC News, Boing Boing

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Napster's Gamble

In its Super Bowl commercial, Napster unveiled its new business strategy -- one it hopes will be profitable yet provide customers with the downloadable music they want.

For $15 per month, Napster To Go customers can download as much music as they want from Napster's 1-million-song catalog. Customers can listen to the music through the Napster client, or download them to an MP3 player.

It's all fun and games... until the customer lets his/her subscription lapse. Then they lose all their music. Oh, and about that MP3 player. Only models with built-in clocks will work with Napster; these will be aware of the owner's subscription status and will disable the music of any deadbeats. So if you're an iPod user and want to subscribe to Napster To Go, you're out of luck. You'll have to buy a compliant model like the iRiver H10 or the Creative Zen Micro.

Is subscribing to a music service really a viable business model? $15 per month (or $180 a year) may be too steep for many, especially young people who would make up the bulk of the service's customer base. Will customers appreciate having their music collections, in effect, held hostage? Or will the appeal of an "all you can eat" service outweigh any inconvenience and cost? Only time -- or the first hack of the timeout function -- will tell.

Source: ZDNet

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Computer Consulting for Sweet Spot Small Busineses

(i.e. computer consulting for companies with 10-50 PC's and1 or more dedicated servers)

Last time, I talked about Computer Consulting for Micro Small Businesses... as a good place for new computer consulting businesses AND new junior-level hires.

However, in order to build a stable computer consultant business, it's crucial to focus on those small businesses that can commit to ongoing outsourced IT servicesrelationships with your computer consulting business.

With a larger small business, with anywhere from 10 to 50PCs, you're still generally not selling to a true IT manager. Your target decision maker is still almost always a NON-technical business owner or high level manager.

But once there's a "real" server, there's generally someappreciation of the importance of working with certifiedconsultants. However, most NON-technical business ownershave no idea or appreciation of the differences betweendifferent levels of certification (i.e. an MCP, MCSA, andMCSE all sound alike)

So with a non-sophisticated, non-technical small businessowner, having an entry-level certification (such as A+ orMCP) is often more than adequate.

HOWEVER, when approaching sweet spot small businesses, you'll definitely need to have a strong IT background...that includes in-depth experience on robust client/servernetworking applications.

To learn more about the different levels of small business computer consulting, and the distinctions between servicing different-sized small business IT needs, be sure to listento 5 Easy Ways to Grow Your Computer Consulting Business (a free 1 hour training audio) available online right now at http://www.computerconsultingkit.com

Best regards,
Joshua Feinberg,
author of Computer Consulting 101 Professional Kit
http://www.computerconsultingkit.com/

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Computer Consulting for Micro Small Businesses

(i.e. computer consulting for small businesses with less than 10 PC's)



We get a LOT of questions every week from both computer consultants and "prospective" computer consultants.



Many want to know where the best opportunities are in small business computer consulting. A lot of these folks too are worried about whether they're even "qualified" to be a small business computer consultant.



The inevitable question... can you be a computer consultant for small businesses, even if you're not yet certified?



YES! Absolutely! In most cases, you can be a VERY successful computer consultant to small businesses WITHOUT being certified.



But a lot of this depends on your target prospect or client size.



Here's what I mean...



Computer Consulting for micro-small businesses

(<10>ACTIVELY work on up-sizing your average client size to the next level.



Micro-small business prospects often don't value and don't want to pay the higher hourly billing rates of certified consultants.



If you're just starting out, and you're not yet certified, micro-small businesses can be a great place to get some real-World experience and some critical reference accounts.



Many larger computer consulting firms even retain micro-small business client accounts expressly for the purpose of training or "breaking in" rookie junior system engineers and technicians.



To learn more about the different levels of small business computer consulting, be sure to listen to 5 Easy Ways to Grow Your Computer Consulting Business (a free 1 hour training audio) available exclusively at

http://www.ComputerConsultingKit.com



Best wishes,



Joshua Feinberg, author of Computer Consulting 101 Professional Kit

http://www.ComputerConsultingKit.com

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Can't Afford That New Luxury Purse? Then Rent It!

Blame Paris Hilton... Demand for luxury handbags and accessories from such pricey designers as Coach, Louis Vuitton or Gucci has never been higher. But the number of women interested in these products far outstrips the number who can actually afford to buy them. How, then, to bring such luxury goods to the masses?



A web-based membership program called Bag Borrow or Steal may have the answer. It applies subscription principles from online retailers like Netflix to rent expensive handbags to its status-conscious members. For as little as $19.95 per month (plus $9.95 when returning a bag), members can "borrow" a designer handbag that would cost hundreds of dollars otherwise. Members can return the bag whenever they like, or "steal" (i.e. keep) it if they really like it. Another benefit to Bag Borrow or Steal is that it ensures its members are kept up to date with the latest styles.

The Internet makes subscription services such as this possible, keeping costs to a minimum while ensuring the widest reach. It's also a way for businesses to satisfy the insatiable demand for upscale merchandise that would normally be beyond the price range of most consumers.



Source: Springwise

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Online Jihad

Websites run by radical Islamic groups are providing detailed information on how to hack and launch denial-of-service attacks on "zionist" web presences. Some of these sites also contain instructions for harassing prominent American, European and Israeli politicians. This, on top of content for active and would-be terrorists already being posted on jihadist sites. The SITE Institute, which tracks terrorist activity, maintains a website with links to several terrorist-run Internet resources.



All indications are that this trend is growing, along with the amount of damage that terror-minded hackers could do. The downside of Internet-enabled enterprise systems is that they can conceivably be attacked from anywhere in the world. In one case, a disgruntled employee of an Australian public utility hacked the computer that managed the sewer system, causing raw sewage to be dumped into the water supply. Though that incident wasn't terror-related, it's an example of what can be done with technology, a little know-how and some creativity.



There's no reason to believe that radicals of all stripes won't take advantage of blogging, podcasting and videocasting to get their messages out to the true believers. Today's terrorist wannabes don't have to go to the Middle East anymore to get their training; they can log on from their bedrooms (or wherever), receive motivation, training and instructions online, and commit acts of terror with a few clicks of a mouse. Then, they won't be wannabes anymore.



Source: Newsweek

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Catholicism Migrates Southward

The center of gravity for America's Catholic population is moving from the Northeast and Midwest to the South, due to southern migration and an influx of Catholic Hispanics.



Many of these Catholic congregations are taking on characteristics of the evangelical Protestant "Bible belt" churches that dominate the region. These parishes tend to be more conservative and more readily accept papal authority -- including teachings about birth control and abortion -- than their Northern brethren.



Meanwhile, established dioceses in the Northeast are seeing declining populations, and are being forced to close churches and parochial schools. If this demographic trend continues -- combined with possibility of a new pope in the near future -- the face of American Catholicism will change, attracting new believers while driving away others.



Sources: TIME, Queens Chronicle

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Computer Analysis Finds Origin of Hope Diamond

Researchers at the Smithsonian Institution have used computer simulation to determine that the infamous Hope Diamond was cut from the French Blue diamond, one of France's crown jewels.

The 69-carat French Blue was cut for King Louis XIV of France from a massive stone found in India in 1668. The French Blue vanished during the French Revolution, but the 45-carat Hope Diamond mysteriously appeared in London 20 years later and was bought by its namesake, Henry Philip Hope.



The researchers were able to confirm that the Hope had been cut from the French Blue by analyzing detailed illustrations of the French crown jewels made in 1700. Using powerful computer analysis, gemologists could see how cuts in both diamonds matched. "This new Hope Diamond research would not have been possible 10 years ago," said Smithsonian gem curator Jeffrey Post. "What is exciting is that we are constantly learning new information about our collections as we apply new high-tech research methods."



The Hope Diamond has a storied history, having been associated with bouts of bad luck for its owners over the years. It is now on permanent display at the Smithsonian's Museum of Natural History in Washington DC.



Source: CNN.com

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Podcasting for Beginners

Blogger Lisa Williams has created a short online video called "Four Minutes About Podcasting," which is exactly what the title says. Aside from being an entertaining take on the subject, the video should be essential viewing for anyone looking to get up to speed on the technology. (RealPlayer required for viewing.)



Also, USA Today has an article highlighting podcasting, its potential as a disruptive technology, and podcast pioneer Adam Curry. It also notes that Microsoft is taking baby steps into the podcasting space while Apple, curiously, stays on the sidelines. Will Apple miss out on the next big thing as a result, even though its iPod is the device that's driving interest? After all, as Lisa Williams' video points out, you don't need an iPod to enjoy podcasting...



UPDATE: Forbes has a piece on how podcasting may pose an unexpected challenge to satellite radio, especially if cars become fitted with wireless data antennas that allow listeners to download podcasts on the road.



Source: unmediated

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Tagging People

Jeff Jarvis at BuzzMachine makes a modest proposal: XML-like tags for people's biographical information, allowing them to interact more fluidly and uniformly in cyberspace. As an example he cites David Gailbraith's one-line bio tag on his blog, as well as the use of Technorati and Flickr tags for blog content.



Evan as he makes this suggestion, Jarvis ponders the consequences of such tagging:

So I started to wonder how I'd be tagged. Would I tag myself? Would the crowd tag me? Would a machine (based on my content and the links to it)? Would it be some Frankensteiny combination?

Would tags go to war with each other? Would the Democrats for whom I'm not conservative enough slap the Republicans for whom I'm too liberal or would it all average out to centrist?

Would the tagee have the right to modify tags (like a credit report) or would that be self-promotion?

In the end, it needs to be a way for people to find people as well as content and comment and communities.

Such thinking has a long way to go -- including whether or not this is even a good idea -- but it provides some insight into how our identities and digital personas might be managed. A tag could conceivably become the Social Security number of the future, providing the foundation for one's identity. The fundamental question, then, concerns control: will we own tags associated with us, or will someone else?



Sources: EMERGIC.org, BuzzMachine

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Michael Jackson, Au Naturel

Yesterday we reported on a "mirror" that allows people to view themselves as they age. In a related vein, forensic artist Stephen Mancusi has created an alternative "age progression" view of Michael Jackson as he would appear today if he had never had any plastic surgery.

As you can see, the King of Pop appears slightly different here than the way we're used to seeing him. To me, he looks a bit like Ted Lange, the actor who played Isaac the bartender on The Love Boat.



The picture was created by applying standard forensic aging trends to a childhood picture of Jackson. Read more about the art and science of forensic art on Stephen Mancusi's website.



Michael Jackson forensic art

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A Glimpse of Your Future Self

Developers at the Accenture Technology Lab in Nice, France, are developing a "mirror" that will image and age people virtually, allowing them to see themselves as they age.



The associated computer can build a model of the "future you" based on lifestyle, simulating your aged appearance based on current personal habits. If you overeat and don't exercise much, for instance, you'll have more pounds added to you than if you follow a healthy diet and work out regularly. Similarly, smoking and heavy alcohol use will also affect your future appearance.



Don't like what you see? The system's creators say that's the point; the positive or negative reinforcement that comes from seeing one's future self will hopefully encourage healthy habits and discourage unhealthy ones.



Source: Protein Feed

aging simulation virtual reality

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Air Force Looks at Teleportation Possibilities

Imagine the power of being able to move people and objects through time and space instantaneously. Anyone who's even a casual fan of science fiction knows this... but now, the U.S. Air Force is apparently taking a very serious look at ways to "beam me up, Scotty."



Dr. Eric Davis, a theoretical physicist, has investigated the possibilities of teleportation and believes that it's wholly possible, and completely in line with Einstein's theory of relativity. Among the possible approaches are wormholes a la Stargate and the alien craft described in the Carl Sagan novel (and Jodie Foster movie) Contact.



As Dr. Davis describes it, "Teleportation isn't dematerialization, which is what Star Trek sci-fi method does. Teleportation is to take the animate or inanimate object and literally move it instantaneously across space time or through dimensions."



The Air Force has reportedly spent $25,000 on a preliminary study. Other countries, including China, are supposedly looking at similar teleportation technology and have had encouraging results.



Government waste? Hoax? Clever Air Force strategy to recruit geeks? Or pure visionary genius? Maybe someone will be teleported from the future to set the record straight...



Source: KLAS-TV

teleportation Air Force

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