I sent a friend an email about his business. I thought I'd share the contents, since it applies to virtually any business with a door, hours, a phone, or a retail storefront. If you own a business, you neglect the internet at your peril. Your competitors are online, or will be as soon as someone convinces them to do so. Your customers are definitely online. Most people are! And, many of us use smart phones.

Sandboxie is, like the name indicates, a sandbox for browsers. This is a Windows only application. This is like a quarantined space for your risky browser to run.

You can't access some websites if you have an updated, safely patched computer. Specifically, the federal government demands visitors use old versions of web browsers. Doing this risks virus and trojan infection. So, using a sandboxed virus collector (like IE6) is the most safe way to do this. Actually running an antique browser without added protection is just a bad idea.

It is, in fact, trivial to set up a Linux router to speed up your connection to the internet. An average computer can be converted into a speedy router and quite adept firewall appliance rather quickly. Anyone with a moderate level of Linux experience can follow the instructions for setting up an Ubuntu based Linux router. Someone willing to read and follow instructions can build a Linux router with absolutely no experience.

Google Places has many features you should understand and utilize. Presently, Google accounts for most non social media search results and contributes substantially to organic traffic. Registering your business with Google Places is free.

Google Places has changed a bit, and any retailer should take note. In the example screen captures, I search for restaurants in my home town by searching "restaurants cullman, al." Then I search for a specific BBQ restaurant I like in town by searching for "johnny's bbq cullman, al."

If you deal with code, files, anything important you likely need a third party repository. Most of my stuff is open source or stuff I'm not going to freak out about if someone else sees it. For that stuff, Project Locker has served me well as a Subversion repository I don't have to babysit. I can give a developer access and not worry about potential risks to my central repository. I also use it for clients when I don't want to take responsibility for hosting their code (it's an easy client divorce for those short and unsure contracts).

Get adequate sleep. Sleep deprivation reduces insulin sensitivity and executive function. Hormones and biochemistry are so damaged by inadequate sleep that a reasonable bedtime should be the number one goal. A lack of sleep can tip an otherwise solid program into failure. Try this experiment: go to bed within 3 hours of your last scheduled meal. Journal behavior and check to see if cheating doesn't diminish or go away. Lots of people cheat on their diets. Well rested people will most likely cheat substantially less.

You, the spammer, come to this site looking for ways to slip advertising before my visitors without compensation or agreement. I, the site owner, work diligently to limit the damage you do to the user's experience. You, without regard for audience, push drugs, schools and porn. I, with a direct and fiery purpose, strive to engage my audience on a daily basis with content that specifically applies to their interest.

You're participating in an experiment.

I have enjoyed millions of readers on my personal blog, but it was a tad too myopic. They came, made friends temporarily, but the true sticky factor simple wasn't there. The focus of this site continues to morph and change. But, it basically remains a constant experiment. Can I build a decent sized viewership, from scratch? And, can I do it basically sticking to topics that interest me and my clients?

All you have to do is get the source, open it in Word (or Open/Libre/etc. Office) and save it as a .doc file. Word 97-2000 format is most common, and allows more Word users to open the document.

If you don't have the source, meaning you receive it in .pdf format, this can be a little bit of more painful.

Free PDF to Word Doc Converter
Free to try, $15 to keep

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