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How to Keep Your Laptop Out of Thieves’ Hands

Here are six guidelines to help you avoid seeing your notebook PC disappear!

So there you are, rushing to catch a plane. You’ve got an important presentation on your laptop, along with sensitive company and personal information. And then, suddenly, it’s gone.

Either you’ve lost it, or it’s been stolen.

Airports and hotels are favourite places for thieves. Laptops disappear from both and that’s bad enough. But often, irreplaceable data has gone with them. According to Safeware, an insurance agency specialising in insuring high-tech equipment, in the US alone 591,000 laptops vanished in 2001.

None of this has to happen to you. But you have to be extra careful today. With the increased security at airports, losing track of a laptop is easier than ever. Here are six guidelines to help you avoid seeing your notebook PC disappear — or, if it does, help you find it or get a quick replacement.

Tips for Getting Through Security Checks

Oddly, some airports have collected stacks of laptops. They’re left behind by harried passengers in security areas. Most are reclaimed eventually. But some people never come back for their machines.

Obviously, you’ve got to allow yourself plenty of time when you fly. When I travel, I carry my laptop in a backpack. There’s lots of room in there, and it’s inconspicuous. I see fashionable businesspeople carrying laptops in expensive cases. They’re asking for trouble. Those cases say, "Laptop! Laptop! Steal me!"

Security people most likely will want to check the laptop. If possible, handle it yourself, rather than having them do it.

Don’t be afraid to speak up. You don’t need your machine damaged.

Be sure your battery is charged. The security people may well want to turn on the machine. Most important, don’t let it out of your sight. This becomes especially difficult if you are selected for a random head-to-toe check.

Once on board your flight, put the computer — safely stowed in your bag — under the seat in front of you. Try to avoid putting it in the overhead bin. Others will have more access to it there.

Have Sensitive Data? Encrypt It

If you have sensitive information on your computer, consider encrypting it. If you have Windows XP, you already have the tools needed. While the thief has your machine, these extra steps will make it much more difficult to access the laptop’s data.

Encryption will protect your business secrets, but it won’t retrieve your data. To do that, you’ve got to back up your information to another computer. If you run your own server, you can easily upload files to it.

You don’t have to back up everything on the laptop. Just copy the files you will need to the server. If your laptop should be stolen on your trip, you may be able to borrow a computer at your destination and download your important files. Finding time for backups is a pain, I know. But they can save you.

Make Your MP3 Player do Double-Duty

If you don’t have a server, or don’t want to back up to it, take a look at MP3 players. Some today have huge hard drives. They are easily hooked to a laptop through the USB or FireWire ports. The data can then be copied to the MP3 player. These things can copy any data, not just MP3s.

Trace a Stolen Laptop’s Location

If your laptop does get stolen, wouldn’t it be great if the system could do the high-tech equivalent of phoning home? There are programs that will report the location of a stolen laptop. They work when the laptop connects to the internet.

Security experts also say that engraving your name on the computer is helpful. That will make it more difficult to sell on so thieves may look elsewhere.

Set a System Password

Every road warrior should protect their laptop with a start-up password. This way, a system password prompt will appear each time you start your computer before Windows even begins to load. It will prohibit any access to the computer at all.

To create a system password, you’ll need to access your computer’s setup utility (also known as BIOS settings, which stands for "Basic Input/Output System"). Typically you do this by pressing Delete, Esc or F1 as soon as you turn on the computer. Check the manual though, as some computers are different.

Consider Laptop PC Insurance

If your laptop is expensive (and aren’t they all?) you might want to insure it. Some homeowners, renters and business insurance policies don’t cover computers, and if they do, there may be many conditions attached.

Today’s laptops are ripe targets for thieves. If you follow these basic guidelines along with some good common sense, you won’t have to give yours up.

Businesses Need Money To Grow. Is Venture Capital Right For You?

The goal of every business is to be successful in their efforts and continue to grow. However, they often come to a crossroads where they are going to have to invest more money if they want to experience growth and additional profits. It may be money needed for new equipment, a larger building, or a number of other items that can be found to keep a business operating at its very best.

Many business owner’s turn to venture capital in order to finance the such ventures for their business. This is a type of loan that comes from a private investor rather than a traditional lending institution. The lender offers the necessary cash and in return they receive shares of ownership in the business.

They often ask for 2% of the profits during the time it takes to repay the funds as well so venture capital lending can be very profitable. In addition you will still be paying the principal balance and the interest on it. However, this 2% is to cover their risk on such an investment.

Business owner’s may have no choice but to look into venture capital options if they are considered to be too high of a risk for a traditional lender to offer them the funding they need. It could be due to the business being new, the business owes too much money to other lenders, or they have a poor credit history that traditional lenders can’t accept.

There are also times when a business needs funding in order to purchase items that aren’t tangible. Since the lender can’t use them as collateral they find the venture to be just too high of a risk. Some common items that may be involved are software programs for operating computers in the business and research that is necessary for the business to successfully grow.

However, it is important to realize that venture capital may not be a good option for your particular business and financial needs. You are going to have to be able to present information that shows there is a very high chance that your business will be quite profitable if you are allowed to access the funds necessary for your business to expand.

Keep in mind that your information also has to show that these additional earnings will be evident in the allotted time frame. In most instances the investors of venture capital will give you a minimum of three years and a maximum of seven years for that growth to occur and be profitable.

Venture capital should always be a last resort when all other options of securing funding have failed. In those instances it can be a very valuable tool which can decide whether you get the funding you need to expand your business or not. It is estimated that more than $6 trillion in loans under the category of venture capital take place each year in the United States. The process is available in many other countries as well but not nearly to the same extreme as in the United States.

Podcasting – What Is It? How Can It Help Me?

Podcasting is a new way to get your message out to millions of people without costing you an arm and a leg.  A podcast is a digital media file that gets distributed over the internet using syndicated feeds for playback later and can be downloaded to a portable media player or computer.  Listeners can also subscribe to your podcast so that when you record a new one and publish it to the internet they are notified and can download it for their listening pleasure or a fee if you choose to go that route.

How can podcasting help your business?  The ways are limitless so instead of having a blog a million pages long and boring no less, we are going to highlight two of the best reasons, in my opinion of course, here.  Reason number 1?  You are in complete control! No one will tell you what you have to record, you control what your listeners hear, how long the cast is and who is allowed to listen to your message.  Reason Number 2?  It’s easy and you can do it for free!  What is better than growing your business and doing it affordably?  There are programs out there that let you record and edit your audio files for free like www.audacity.com.  If you want to pay for a program they come in all shapes, sizes and price ranges.

To reach your target audience you will want to do some research to find the appropriate place to link your site and then get it out to all the RSS feeders that you can.  If you don’t know what an RSS is that’s alright.  An RSS is Really Simple Syndication and is how your podcast is syndicated and found by others on the internet. Many websites today will have RSS somewhere on them with a logo or icon.  When you click on this little logo you will be able to subscribe to the feed and be notified when there are updates and new content available. It is an easy way to get updates without having to manually visit a web page or blog to check for updates or news.

Having your podcast associated with an RSS feed will allow those listeners that have subscribed to your feed to be notified automatically and immediately when you have new information.  No more sending emails out to everyone individually, this saves you time and therefore money!

Podcasting is yet another wave of the future.  To get ahead and reach more people than ever you need to grab your board and ride the waves into the next age of technology.  Surf’s Up!

Tips for Window Cleaning

Windows appears to be fine and superlative if they are clean. Cleaning should be done on a regular basis, at least twice a year.

Given below are some useful techniques for cleaning a window:

•      Clean one part of a window with the horizontal strokes and the other part with the vertical strokes. By doing this, you can identify which area of the window have a streak.

•      To steer clear of streaks on a large window, employ squeegee. Situate it at the top of the window and pull down effortlessly. The trick for no streaks with the squeegee is to introduce a dry rubber blade on the dry window.

•      Bring a flexible toothbrush or cotton swab in use to clean the corners.

•      To give a superfluous shine to the window glass, polish it with the well-washed cotton T-shirts or old cloth diapers. Or else rub a clean blackboard eraser over a freshly rinsed and dried out window to furnish it a brilliant shine.

•      Polishing windows with the wrinkled newspaper will provide a luminous shine. Besides, it leaves a film which is resistant to dirt.

•      When you have to clean the soil, grease or the other debris from your window panes, use a product such as baking soda, ammonia, or washing soda.

•      Make certain that you dry out your windows in one direction only, leftwards or rightwards as mingling of the direction will not give a tidy look.

•      If you are cleaning the window sills, scrape the entire surface through the wet cloth sprayed with alcohol so that all the spots get cleared.

By following these tips, you can view the world from a clean perspective which will come into sight as rose-tinted glasses.

Avoid Sticker Shock when Buying Ink Cartridges

Over the past year, I’ve had the dubious pleasure of buying two different printers: a black-and-white laser printer and a dual-purpose copier and color inkjet printer. My laser printer gets a good workout on a daily basis, while I usually reserve my color inkjet printer for photos.

Although both printers are well made and carry brand names (HP and Brother), they were incredibly inexpensive. In fact, one of the primary reasons I bought both was because of their bargain prices. Imagine my chagrin, then, when I had to replace the toner cartridges in my laser and the ink cartridges in my inkjet, and discovered that each cartridge cost about half of what I paid for the printer.

I quickly – and correctly – surmised that printer manufacturers sell printers at or below the cost of making them, and generate profits from the sale of original equipment manufacturer (OEM) ink cartridges. With dire warnings of possible damage to the printer or voiding the printer warranty, the manufacturers insist that consumers buy only OEM printer cartridges. I resented being gouged by their inflated prices, and so did some of my own research about OEM print cartridges and alternatives. Here’s what I discovered:

Option One: Compatible Ink Cartridges

Contrary to popular belief, compatible ink cartridges are not recycled. Rather, they are brand new, generic versions of OEM cartridges. They have all of the quality and reliability of OEM cartridges, but cost only a fraction of the price.

Option Two: Remanufactured Print Cartridges

As the name implies, remanufactured ink cartridges are, indeed, recycled. However, the old cartridges aren’t simply refilled. Rather, they are disassembled, inspected, cleaned, reassembled, filled with ink, and individually print tested to meet or surpass the specifications associated with OEM ink cartridges.

Cost Savings

I was astounded when I saw the price differences between OEM, compatible, and remanufactured ink cartridges. For example, one black and one colour ink cartridge for an HP DeskJet 920C might cost Ј50.45 for the OEM cartridges, but only Ј16.95 for remanufactured cartridges. A pack of four ink cartridges (black, cyan, magenta, and yellow) for the Brother DCP117C might cost Ј31.80 for OEM, but only Ј8.95 for the compatible version. Over the lifetime of a printer, those kinds of savings really add up!

Cartridge Life

Typically, remanufactured ink cartridges have a shorter "shelf life" than OEM or compatible cartridges. A remanufactured cartridge will be good for about six months, whereas a compatible cartridge is vacuum-sealed and will be viable for years.

Suppliers

I also discovered that it’s important to purchase compatible and remanufactured ink cartridges from a reputable dealer. When shopping online, look for a supplier that uses top-quality ink, has been in business several years, offers free UK delivery, and doesn’t require a minimum order.

Medical Innovations Via Modern Machine Tool Technology

Massive advancements have been made in the cost and the quality of orthopedic devices, implant devices and many other medical components. These advancements have been supported, and in many cases made possible, by the modernization of equipment and manufacturing investments in the medical products industry.

Injected molded plastic parts, such as artificial knee and hip joints, specially engineered small – to medium-sized medical parts, and plastic injected syringes, pill containers and breathing apparatus devices are all essential to modern medicine and personal health care. Implant devices such as artificial hip joints are frequently made from strong, tough but hard to machine titanium and cobalt chrome stainless steel.

Much of this technological improvement simply would not have been possible without the machine tool advancements that have occurred to help generate these medical applications. And many of those industries and jobs are located in the heartland of America, according to applications engineers at Makino, a global provider of advanced machine tool technology.

This is an area of future manufacturing growth. One major designer and developer of cardiovascular medical products, such as leads that connect to life-saving devices such as implantable defibrillators and pacemakers, says the intricacy of modern machine tools makes all its work possible. The small, detailed shapes with exceptional finishes demanded by modern health industry consumers simply could not be made without the work performed by modern CNC machine tools.

Health care and orthopedic health professionals recognize that technologically progressive equipment and methods are vital to making continued advancements toward superior health care in the United States. Prioritizing the investment in machine tool technology will yield even greater health care benefits and options to an aging American population that continues to grow.

Three Secrets to Mega-Success (Part 1 of 3)

I’ll be the first to admit it…

I’m not a genius. My SAT scores weren’t the highest. I didn’t have a perfect 4.0 GPA in college (but I was pretty close). And I don’t even have a formal "business degree."

So – how the heck did I graduate at the top of my class, start my first (profitable!) business at 14, go on to become successful in MLM, work and perform at venues like the Kennedy Center and Signature Theatre and even start my own marketing company serving MLMers?

Glad you asked. 😉

I’ve finally decided to let you in on my secrets.

You see, for years my friends and family always called me "lucky". But the kicker is – I don’t believe in luck.

I think it was Earl Nightingale who said "luck is when opportunity meets preparation", right? So instead of calling someone "lucky" – we should just say they’ve been prepared to spot opportunities.

How? By having the right mindset.

Let me explain…

Recently, I was asked to speak for a group of hand-picked entrepreneurs in a special apprenticeship program (some of them paying up to $7,000.00 to be part of the year-long home business program).

And in preparing for that talk, I was forced to look at my daily success activities that allow me to play games, travel and keep the alarm clock turned off.

Now, fortunately for you – you don’t have to pay $7,000.00 to hear what I came up with. You’re going to get my top 3 "secrets" for FREE right here in "Instant MLM Profit Secrets"!

(Note: I sure as heck didn’t invent any of these secrets, but instead picked them up from MY mentors over the years. Just because they may seem simple, don’t mistake the fatal mistake of discounting their power. Use them and profit from them.)

SUCCESS SECRET #1: One Pro-Active Thing A Day

I learned from one of my mentors, Dan Kennedy, to always do one pro-active thing a day. Every single day of the year. And when I follow that advice – it always has a great impact on my sales and bottom line.

You know – it doesn’t even matter if you have a 9-5 job or work full-time from home. EVERY person can do one pro-active thing a day.

I know, I know. This may sound TOO easy to do…but that makes it just as easy not to do.

Take this advice to heart. Not a day goes by (okay, maybe one or two do!) where I’m not doing something to bring in new customers and clients for my businesses. Whether it’s doing a sit-down presentation or finding a new affiliate – it doesn’t matter.

Like clockwork. Every single day.

But BEWARE! The danger here is to SKIP it one day and tell yourself you’ll double up on the next day. Don’t do it! The temptation is great, I know – but you’re programming your mind for procrastination and indecision.

Instead, get up each morning and give yourself ONE important activity to do for that day for your business. It could be calling a prospect, finding a new affiliate, one 3-way call. Almost anything. Don’t let yourself go to bed until you’ve done it.

And what’s the end result?

You’ll program your mind for action and success. That’s what makes this so powerful! Even if you’re having a "bad" day, you’ve still reached your one goal and had a win by the time you go to bed. Believe me, your subconscious is taking note!

Do this for just 30 days and you’ll be amazed how you feel and the results you can accomplish.

—– Side Bar: Want to be super-successful? Include READING and LISTENING as part of your daily activities. Every single day read 10 pages of a good book and listen to 15 minutes of a tape or CD. (It’s the closest you can come to barely doing any real work and still improving yourself.)

It was Michael Clouse who taught me to stick a CD player in my bathroom on top of my toilet. And I’ll tell you – it’s one of the greatest self-improvement tips I’ve picked up! Every day when showering and getting dressed, all you’ll have to do is push "play" and better yourself. Doesn’t get much easier than that. —–

I know I just gave you a potpourri of things to think about, so here’s how you can immediately apply this to YOUR daily routine…

1) Buy a stack of 3×5 cards. In the morning, write down your ONE goal for the day. Carry it around with you. And don’t go to bed until it’s done.

2) READ each day. 10 pages. Or one chapter. Or 30 minutes. It doesn’t matter the amount as long as you’re consistent and regular. (And when I said read – it’s not the tabloids or the negative news. It’s something that improves your skills and expands your thinking!)

3) Buy yourself a cheap boom-box for your bathroom. Stick it on the toilet. And listen to a positive tape or CD each day. Again, it’s the consistent action that will get you the results.

And there you have it – the first of my three success secrets that’ll give you "magic" results.

Now, I promise you, there are people who are reading this saying "oh yeah, that, I’ve heard that before" but they won’t do a damn thing with the information….and most likely they are the same people NOT achieving the mega-success.

Don’t be one of them.

Try these quick and easy activities until I send you Success Secret #2 and see how you feel!

Your business (and bank account) will thank you!

Irish Whisky

The fact that there are only three distilleries in Ireland would suggest that this has always been a small-scale industry. Take time to visit the Old Jameson Distillery in Dublin or the Jameson Heritage Centre in Midleton, County Cork and another truth is immediately apparent. These are distilleries built on a grand scale. Both sites are long silent, but give a glimpse of a time when Irish whiskey rather than Scotch was the world’s favourite style.

No wonder distillers like Jameson and Power rejected the column still; the world wanted their pot-still whiskey. By the end of the 19th century, Jameson’s Bow St. plant was employing 300 people and 2 million gallons were sleeping beneath the Dublin streets. But history stepped in and five years after the formation of Irish Distillers, the Bow St. site closed. Production was switched to Power’s equally grand John’s Lane distillery for three years, before the new plant at Midleton started up in 1975.

Much the same happened in Cork Distilleries’ massive ‘Old’ Midleton distillery now (slightly confusingly) called The Jameson Heritage Centre. It’s undoubtedly impressive, but like all silent distilleries, slightly sad and ghostly. Wandering round this vast plant you can imagine the scrape of the shovels in the malting barns, the creak of the pulleys, the hiss and rattle of the stills, the clatter of hooves in the cobbled courtyard, the cries and laughter of the men, the calming splash of the water wheel which powered the plant.

Then in 1975 the wheel stopped, the largest pot still in the world (at 31,648 gallons big enough to hold a party in) produced its last spirit. But the ending of the old world ushered in a new one of high-tech whiskey making. ‘New’ Midleton, carefully hidden from the tourists’ gaze, may look unimpressively industrial from the outside, but is the most remarkable distillery in the world.

So why haven’t we heard about it? Maybe the industry had been so badly beaten up that it lost confidence in selling to the world. Until recently that is. Jameson is currently the fastest-growing whiskey brand in the world, new lines are appearing at a rate of knots. But we skip ahead.

How can you make 30-plus different whiskies (and gin and vodka) in one site? The few visitors who are allowed into the Midleton still room spend an age shaking their heads in wonder at the four massive pot stills sitting opposite the seven columns that shoot up to the roof. ‘Effectively, what we have here is two distilleries rolled into one – a pot still/malt whiskey distillery and a column still light/grain whiskey distillery,’ says master distiller Barry Crockett, looking down into the cavernous stillhouse.

‘What’s unique is the way the distillate streams can be diverted from the pot still side to the column still side, and vice versa. Actually, I can use any combination that takes my fancy!’ In other words, he can make a triple distilled pot still spirit, or pot-column-pot, or column-pot-pot, or … well, you get the idea. Just through distillation, different flavour profiles are created. There’s more. ‘The cut points for each component whiskey will vary,’ he says.

‘Say we’re making one for Jameson 15-year-old. It will have a different cut point to the standard Jameson. Power’s and Paddy will also have their own different cut points, distillation techniques – and mashbills.’ Most of the pot still whiskeys use a percentage of unmalted barley – giving them a distinctive crunchy, spicy quality. ‘It’s hard to describe.