Category: Uncategorized

Networking

by jepheverett, posted in Uncategorized

I’ve been fortunate to make some pretty incredible friends.  I work with my friends, and consider myself lucky to do so.  More importantly, in my own mind at least, I’ve learned to do what I love in friends living rooms, offices, and over coffee or beer.  Social networking has become second nature for me, and increasingly, for a generation.

More than half of relationships now start online, and e-commerce seems to be one of the only economic sectors still growing reliably.  If you’re into the idea of doing what you want instead of what you have to, find yourself a specialty, and start connecting with people online.

But don’t stop there.  Make sure that if you really help someone out in learning your craft, they have some way of telling the world how great you are.  Make sure to ask them to recommend your work on LinkedIn, and look into setting up your own free WordPress blog to write about what you’re helping people with.  I was shocked how easy it was to import my old windows live blog posts, it took like 2 minutes total. literally. Facebook is a whole other thing- it’s great, but it does entail a level of involvement and intent totally different from the previous methods.

Most importantly, take your valuable relationships offline as often as possible.  There is nothing more important than a warm hello followed by a hug or a handshake.

Microsoft Security Essentials

by jepheverett, posted in Uncategorized

So I’ve been running MSE for about a year now, and I’ve got to say it’s been great.  Vitrually no annoying pop-ups, daily updates for security, and no issues with viruses all year.  I did see the scanner notify me about a number of potentially malicious files, but with very few false positives.  I was pleased to hear Microsoft announce that it would be free for small businesses to use for up to 25 users.  Make sure you uninstall thoroughly any other Anti-Virus applications like Norton, McAffee, TrendMicro, and the like before installing MSE.  You can download it from www.microsoft.com/security_essentials.

An alternative to a tumultuous market?

by jepheverett, posted in Uncategorized

I’ve been following a trend know as microfinance or microloans for a few years now, and I’m really excited to see that some online marketplaces for it are getting established.

The concept is simple- instead of investing huge amounts in huge multinationals, invest smaller amounts in microloans the 3rd world, where traditional means of finance are typically unavailable.  You’ll be getting fairly low returns, from 1-3%, but data to date suggests that microloans have extraordinarily low default rates.  Certainly no once can argue against a little portfolio diversification these days, and I’m hoping no one will argue against the mission.  Take a look at:

http://www.kiva.org

https://www.microplace.com/