Small Business Tech

Just a reminder that Daylight Savings Time did not end this weekend. In spite of the time displayed by many of your gadgets and possibly some of your computers, the time actually falls back one hour next weekend. In March at the start of Daylight Savings Time I posted some fixes for computer operating systems.

To add confusion to my older devices that still stick to the old schedule, I spent the weekend in the central time zone.

Labels: DST

I consider myself to be a careful computer user. I have do not remember ever catching a trojan or virus in at least the last seven years. I carefully surf the web on any of my production computers. Well, I got caught in a simple and easily-contrived phishing scam recently.

An email arrived indicating that the credit card used in my Yahoo pay-per-click advertising account was about to expire. I knew this event was going to happen soon, so I clicked the link and entered my user name and password in the very official Yahoo Marketing login page. The remainder of the process was odd, though. I was not taken to a page with my credit or account information. I chalked it up to a web oddity and made a note to check it out later.

Well later did not come soon enough. When I went back to log into Yahoo I was unable to do so. It all came together in my head - I had been scammed. A call to customer support at Yahoo quickly resolved the issue. The culprit had charged $500 to my credit card and proceeded to setup his keywords and such. Yahoo refunded the $500 and restored my account in just a couple of hours.

How to you prevent this. I now have a habit of not opening any notice directly from an email. I will open a link if a friend sends me a Youtube video or such, but I do not click on a link if it involves my bank, credit card, or any account with monetary value. If any link leads to a login page or any form that asks a personal question then I just close the browser.

Obviously we need to follow up on certain notices, though. The best method is to open a browser and enter the usual address that we use to access the service. Then look in the area of interest pointed out in the email.

This brings up a another valuable point. DO NOT use the same password for every web site. Using a unique password for each web site will minimize your exposure if you do get caught in a phishing scam. I do use the same password for non consequential web sites, but I use a different password for each and every financially related web site. I will follow up with more information about how to manage passwords easily and safely.

Labels: email, passwords, phishing, security

We have been early customers of T-Mobile's Hotspot at Home service. I still think that it is revolutionary, and surprised that a competitor has not hopped on the band wagon. I have heard rumors that Sprint was introducing a similar, but less versatile, service. I have not found proof on the Sprint or credible sites.

As a follow up to other's cell phone horror stories and my T-Mobile service experience, we have had one small problem with T-Mobile. Last month, we noticed that we were quickly using our anytime minutes and we did in fact go over five dollars. The strange thing was that no matter how we altered our phone usage we could not stop the hemmorage of minutes. Being a parent-I blamed the kids first. They swore they were not burning minutes. I began to suspect a problem with T-Mobile's billing system.

This month, I waited one week into the month so that we would have a variety of usage but not an overwhelming amount of data. Score one for T-Mobile that they allow customers to download current minute usage to Excel or similar spreadsheet software. I was ultimately able to manipulate the numbers to show T-Mobile that a problem existed. I was never able to pin down the problem, but the customer service representative was able to do so in a nearly one-hour telephone call. She discovered that T-Mobile was not crediting two users HotSpot at Home usage correctly. The usage was being subtracted from our anytime minutes.

The end of the story is that they refunded the overage last month, corrected this month's usage, and I apologized to the kids.

Epilogue: Do not ever pay T-Mobile late. I think that it would be cheaper to skip the mortgage for a week or two. The late fee for T-Mobile is $20 per line. That is right. Four lines = $80 late fee.

Labels: cell phone, Cellular, HotSpot, T-Mobile

Asus has indicated that they will announce final pricing for the ultra-low price notebook computer on October 16th. They are indicating that they will release 10,000 units this month with initial sales in the United States in Best Buy retail stores and online retailer NewEgg.

Labels: Asus, eee, notebook computer

We had an opportunity to stroll through the Sanford Bikefest this afternoon. I might have been out of place without a bike (I gave it up years ago) and the associated attire, but it was a great day for people watching.

Google Picasa Album

I have been anxiously awaiting the release of the very portable Asus eee line of computers. According to rumors the wait might be over this Fall. In the mean time you can view a few details at the official eee web site.

Another rumor that I have found is that the price is continuing to creep closer to $300. I think that the sweet spot for the pricing of a computer like this is about $200 to $250. I hope Asus does not continue to kill this computer market segment by over pricing.

Labels: Asus, eee, thin client

First a bit of background about Skype. Skype is a software application for Windows, Linux, and other operating systems for making telephone and Skype-to-Skype calls via your computer. It was born and raised in Europe until it was purchased by Ebay in September 2005.

Initially business users were advised to steer clear of Skype. There were some security issues because of the method that Skype uses computers to relay telephone calls. Ebay promised early to address these business security concerns by releasing a business version of the software. Ebay has developed a business version along with a business-centric control panel where you can centralize and regulate user spending.

I have had a couple of months to test Skype for business and I have to give it a thumbs up for the small business community. It is convenient for general telephone calls and also to connect remote workers. I have used it as a video conferencing client as well as assisted others in using it as their sole business communications tool. It works nearly flawlessly it both capacities.

There are a few different ways that you can use Skype...
Skype-to-Skype. You can use the software to chat, video conference, and telephone other Skype users free of charge. How many Skype users exist? At this point, over 9,000,000 million people use Skype on business days. That number drops to half on weekends. Obviously business users are loving Skype. These type of calls are free.

Skype Out. You can use the Skype software to make low-cost telephone calls to anywhere in the world. Skype's rates really shine for international phone calls. It beats nearly any rate that I could negotiate with a conventional carrier. Depending on use, domestic callers can save money as well.

Skype In. For just $3.00 per month Skype can setup an inbound telephone number in most area codes in the United States. Skype also offers voicemail and the ability to forward telephone calls to your wireless phone.

Skype is relatively painless to setup. You first download the application from http://skype.com/business. Once you complete setup the software will walk you through setting up an account. Once your account is established you can then return to the business web site and create a business login with your Skype account. At that point, employees perform the download, install, and sign up routine. You discover their Skype identities and then add them to your business dashboard.

Once the employees are setup, you can than add funds to their accounts as well as manage Skype In numbers, voicemail, etc.

Some people do not want to be tied to their computer to make phone calls, though. This is where third-party providers and Skype have stepped up with solutions. Providers now offer Skype phones that range from just USB handsets that connect to your computer to wireless self-contained Skype phones. One stand-out solution is the Philips VOIP8411B dual line wireless phone. It is capable of connecting directly to Skype without a computer and using a traditional land line telephone connection.

Skype is great tool for just experimenting and trying because you never need to worry about a long-term contract. You literally spend just a few dollars a month at a time for features.

Those that tried early computer-telephone solutions might have some very bad memories. That is understandable based on the early experiments, but Skype like other VOIP providers have really improved call quality. In many cases they have even surpassed the quality of traditional telephone service.

Labels: Skype, VOIP

I have been a fan of Microsoft Flight Simulator since the DOS days in the 80's. I even remember playing with one on the TI 99/4A before Microsoft released their first version. These days it is difficult to find the time to drag out the peddles and yoke and start up Flight Simulator X. I can get a quick fix with a flight simulator hidden in Google Earth, though.

Once you have downloaded, installed, and started Google Earth, press CTRL+ALT+A keys simultaneously. You will be presented with a dialog box where you can choose from two wildly different aircraft and then your favorite airfield. I understand that most joysticks or game pads are supported.

You can download Google Earth here: link
For more information about control keys, etc.: link

Labels: flight simulator, Google, Google Earth