tExtrapolate

The First Couple Years are Always The Hardest

As a serial entrepreneur and founder of a few startup companies I have seen firsthand the truth of this statement. While a lot of the stress in starting a company comes from simply wondering whether you will be able to drum up enough business to get into the black, a lot also comes from the process of building your infrastructure.

Most small businesses got into business because they had a competitive advantage and a set of strengths. Along with those set of strengths, however, also comes a set of weaknesses. Bob, the owner of Dandies Fix It Repair Shop, probably can’t design a website to advertise his business. On the other hand, Janet, the owner of Pickle Littles Web [read the full story]

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Identity Theft and Phishing is rampant these days! I’m sure you’ve received numerous emails from your long lost deceased Uncle Bob’s attorney who just happens to be managing the distribution of his estate and wants to send you 3.4 million dollars.

These days its important to be watching out for more than just suspicious emails. Because your computer most likely contains information such as passwords, banking account information, birthdays, etc. you should protect all access to your computer as well. You need to “harden” your operating system. Putting your operating system (Linux, Windows, etc.) through the school of hard knocks will ensure that it is closed to unauthorized access.

Completing a Google search for “windows xp hardening tips” turns up close to 1 million results. There are a ton of great solutions to harden (increase security) for your operating system. As I use Windows XP and Ubuntu the below tips are most relevant to users of those operating systems, though there is a lot of overlap from one operating system to another. While there is a plethora of different techniques, I’ve found that the following five techniques provides enough security to protect the average users computer. If you are hosting top level government secrets on your computer you’ll probably need to implement some extra security steps, but for the average home/business computer user these five steps will secure your computer sufficiently.

1. Always use a NON-ADMINISTRATOR account. Your computer will allow you to make a whole slew of extra security errors if you are logged in as an administrator. Change the administrator account so that the password is extra difficult and also ensure that the account is not named “administrator” or “admin”. Only use this account for necessary installation, etc. and then log back into a non-administrator account immediately thereafter.
2. Ensure strong password compliance. Use only passwords that are rated “100%” by The Password Meter in their password strength checker (http://www.passwordmeter.com/). To achieve this level of strength your password will most likely need [read the full story]

   Tags: Harden Linux, Harden Windows, System Security

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Virus attacks are increasing in prevalence. Data/Identity theft is rampant. Computer crimes are becoming the preferred vehicle for white collar criminals.

But no worries… you sleep well at night because you’ve got anti virus software on all your workplace computers. You’ve installed firewall blockades at each point of network entry. You’ve even implemented policies requiring all of your employees to log off their workstations if they step away from their desks.

According to John Johnson, Security Focus contributor, you are sleeping on a bed of nails. In his article “Fortifying My Doghouse While Thieves Steal My Computer” he introduces several pivotal points of systems security analysis that infer such a good nights rest might not be granted… yet.

Systems Security Analysis

Step One:
Identify assets and the impact of their loss. If a computer is stolen are you just loosing the $500 it will cost to replace it or are you loosing more than that? Is their customer information stored therein? Is it private information that could be used in identity theft? Are you looking at multiple lawsuits for loosing such information? The point of this step is to get a good grasp on the true value of each asset. Go ahead and actually list out your assets and categorize them (as suggested by Johnson in his article) as either data, hardware, software, facilities, documentation, personnel or operations.

Step Two:
Develop security processes.Vital to this step is to engrave in your mind the following idea… “Security is a process, not a goal or the blame for not implementing enough protection.” One of the biggest mistakes you can make is to assume [read the full story]

Tags: Security Analysis, System Security

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What are Software Requirement Specifications? Why should I write them up before developing software?

In one of my first entrepreneurial ventures I needed some software written. It was a pretty basic application. It needed to take an HTTP call from a cell phone provider text messaging system and translate it over to text we could display on a screen. We were one of the first to develop the idea… we called it TAGG. It later adopted the name “text to screen” which is now industry standard. While it might seem pretty straightforward how I have described the software, at the time of commissioning the project it wasn’t. We weren’t sure what exactly we wanted/needed and how to get it.

Thankfully the programmer I brought on as a partner was very experienced and was able to lead me and the other partners into the process without too much trouble. One HUGE mistake we made [read the full story]

Tags: Software Development

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Get it While It’s Hot!

While I’m an avid user of Ubuntu Linux I must still admit that Microsoft creates some excellent products (and a smathering of not so excellent products). Windows is still the most prevalent OS in use and you must know how to use Microsoft products to be successful in today’s world.

That being said, who wants to pay for their products? What if you could get them free?

Microsoft currently has a FREE 1 year subscription available to their TechNet Plus program. TechNet Plus is a program that allows you to download FULL VERSION, NO TIME LIMIT, NO RESTRICTIONS software for testing/evaluation. The subscription lets you download their software and gives you the keys to enable it. You can use it as long as you want and even [read the full story]

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First off, if you have ten minutes to increase your knowledge and proficiency in computers read this entire post.  If not, just skip down to the final section (What is Ubuntu?) for an overview of what Ubuntu is and why their logo (the red, yellow, orange circle dealy above) is being used on this site for the month of May.

History of Operating Systems

A lot of people that have grown up using Microsoft Windows (or even the Mac operating systems) are addicted to the ease of point and click.  The graphical user interface (GUI) of Windows makes it easy to use a computer… you move the mouse around the desktop and click on icons of programs you want to run.  However, these GUIs are newborns in the life of computing.  The earliest computers came into existence in the 1930s and by the 1940s were being used to decipher German war time codes.  Until the popular release of Windows 3.1 in 1992 the graphical user interface was practically non-existent.  Before then people were using text user interfaces (TUI) to tell their computers what to do.  Before that people were actually using paper cards, linked together in chains, to operate their computers.

Early computer engineers created a solution that combined many smaller programming styles, languages, etc. into one rather robust (for their time) operating system/platform called Unix.  This eventually gave way to Linux (more user friendly than Unix), Windows and the Mac operating systems (much more user friendly than Unix).  Mac has recently redone their operating system to such a degree that it has reverted back closer to its Unix roots and now closely resembles Linux.  Windows, as much as Microsoft wants you to think differently, is pretty much a derivative/break-off of Unix and thus very closely related to Linux.  While Windows captured the majority of market share in the early 1990s, Linux began to gain popularity in the mid 90s with the release of Redhat (a distribution/derivative of Linux).  However, because Linux is created by the community and is most often free to use (unlike Windows which now costs between $90 and $200 to use it on one computer) it has not received nearly as large a marketing push as Windows has.  Another setback of early versions of Linux is that it was only [read the full story]

Tags: Computers, Linux, Operating Systems, Ubuntu, Windows

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It is plainly obvious to us that you are pulling information from the Digital Signage Universe Directory (You would not have gotten this email address any other way) in order to build your own Directory. While we can’t prevent you from doing this, we would strongly recommend that you make your directory “significantly” different from ours, otherwise we will shove a lawyer so far up you’re a**, you wont s*** for a year!  Don’t say you weren’t warned, we are keeping a close eye on you!

Best Regards,

Digital Signage Universe

[edited for content]

I’m in my mid twenties and have only been in business for a couple years.  However, there is one thing that I’ve already learned about the grand scheme of business - competition.

Competition is healthy for consumers.  Through competition they receive higher product quality, lower [read the full story]

Tags: competition, Digital Signage

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This morning I stumbled upon a wiki entry on cosmology.  No, not hair dressing.  The article was really boring (I’ll admit I only got a couple paragraphs through it before I canned the idea of ever being a rocket scientist) but it did get my mind working.  It led me to some conclusions about the big bang theory of marketing.

I’ve been reading a lot on the internet lately about product release techniques.  An interesting theme seems pretty relevant in a lot of what I’ve been reading… release your product with a big bang.

This big bang theory of product release is not the most prevalent, by any means.  Traditionally product releases require a substantial amount of effort upfront, before the release.  When the product is then 75% ready for release, [read the full story]

Tags: advertising, innovation, marketing, product release

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Often, in this world of so many products we find that all of the products within a product genre share the same functional qualities.  Finding a functional differentiator is extremely difficult.  A functional differentiator is a product quality or feature that makes it different from another product in the same genre.  For example, I sell a lot on eBay.  I sell the same goods that a number of other people are selling.  So, how do I differentiate and get people to buy from me instead of another seller?  Smoke and mirrors.

The smoke and mirrors (aka induced differentiation) of marketing is the way that most companies position their brands to close sales.  A colleague of mine worked for Associated Foods [read the full story]

Tags: Apple Inc, Brand Names, Brands, Calvin Klein, Duncan Hines, eBay, Martha Stewart, Product Differentiation

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This morning I was up at the University of Utah when I saw a little sign off to the side of a walkway. What really got my attention was that the sign was partly hidden behind the low hanging boughs of a tree. My first instinct was to walk to the other side of the walkway so that I could read what it was advertising; The Ultimate Sidewalk Sale.

I immediately though that it was a rather weird placement for a sign. Why didn’t they put it out in the open where people would see it more? As I was thinking about this I saw several other signs, all partially hidden behind trees, planter boxes, etc. Then the marketer in me kicked in, and it hit me.

The reason why the campus bookstore was advertising in this overt and somewhat abstract way is because it gets attention. This is what I like to call ambient advertising. Place an advertisement in an ambient, somewhat out of the way and unusual place and it is sure to get noticed.

Why is Ambient Advertising So Effective?

Because of the advertisements unique placement, people that notice the advertisement notice it more than had it been out in the open. People tend to ignore advertisements that are slapped right in the middle of their view. On the flip side, if an advertisement is placed in their periphery or in a highly unusual location then they notice and they often think about it.

The more you can get a prospective customer to notice and think about your product, the greater the probability that they [read the full story]

Tags: advertising, Advertising and Marketing, Business, Jamba Juice, marketing, New media, Online advertising, University of Utah

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