As we all know, the US is currently in the middle of an economic crisis.  The true extent of that crisis depends on who you listen to. 

One thing is for sure however, and that is that we are currently in a major economic slowdown. 

Some major financial institutions have recently failed completely or had their assets seized including AIG, Bear Stearns, Wachovia and Washington Mutual along with some not as well known institutions such as IndyMac Bancorp Inc., First National Bank of Nevada and First Heritage Bank NA of California.

What this means is that our economy is most definitely in trouble.  The housing market, sub-prime mortgage debacle and the impending credit crunch have all lead to plummeting consumer confidence. 

As I finish writing this the US government is stepping in and passing a $700 billion dollar bailout package.  Will this have a positive, long-term effect on the economy remains to be seen.

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Years ago, being “into” computers meant long, lonely walks home from school, eating lunch at tables far, far away from the “cool kids” and lengthy discussions about the relative impact of photon torpedoes and how Dr. Spock actually could be transported down to the surface of that mysterious planet.

These days, thankfully, Geek is the new Chic and being in the Information Technology (IT) industry offers a lot of opportunities and many benefits that we’ll list below.  When you finish reading our top 25, leave a comment and let us know your top few favorite reasons for being a IT pro. 

If you’re in the IT industry, many of these will be common knowledge to you.  If you’re not in the industry yet, or thinking about making a change, you really need to consider these 25 Reasons why it’s Great to be an IT Guy (or Girl).

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If you’re like me, you like many of the things Microsoft Vista has built-in, like the ubiquitous search, some of the visual elements, an actual calendar when you click on the clock (it’s the little things in life) and the list goes on (not really, but play along).

There are however, a number of things that really annoy me about Vista, and as I come across them I’ll post to the blog so you can benefit from my frustration.

The annoyance, and solution, for today is the fact that when I have multiple users logged on to Windows Vista, I can’t open task manager, click on the users tab, select the user I want to log off and kick them to the curb.

Instead, I get an annoying message saying [sessionID=X] could not be logged off, access is denied.  Denied!  I’m an administrator on the machine!  The other user is just a user (to make matters even more belittling to my “pretend admin” powers).

Well, after doing a little research I found that you can in fact boot users via task manager, but you must run task manager with elevated privileges (administrator isn’t enough). 

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Google just released their entry into the browser space, and it certainly has the makings of a champion. 

Called Chrome, Google’s browser is sleek, very fast, and takes a new approach at browsing the web (from the ground up).

There are a number of technical advancements under the hood, which Google describes in typical Google fashion.

This browser has a number of features that really differentiate it from the other major players (Internet Explorer, Firefox and Safari), including the ability to run each tab independent of one another.

What this means basically is that if one tab hangs it doesn’t hang the whole browser.  This, coupled with a new java virtual machine, V8, combine to make the whole browsing experience very pleasant.

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When it comes to marketing on the Internet, and leveraging tools, technologies and trends there are a few major players out there. 

Several that we follow, and have learned a lot from over the last few years are Aaron Wall, Neil Patel and Jeremy Shoemaker, aka "ShoeMoney"

The ShoeMoney group has recently released a set of SEO tools that is sure to boost your business and make you more money if used correctly.

They have assembled a tool set that simplifies many SEO tasks and provides a way to really dig deep into areas only professional SEOs had access to before.  Their tools focus on three main areas, including SEO Tools, PPC Tools and Link Building Tools.

If you’re serious about driving your business to the next level, finding new ways to develop traffic, build backlinks and ultimately get ahead of your competition, you need these tools.

One of the most interesting tools is their expired domain checking tool, which allows you to see a real-time list of all the domains that have recently expired and are available to be registered.  Even more importantly, their tool shows you how many backlinks currently exist for the domain. 

In other words, you’re able to see how many backlinks from high authority domains like .edu, .gov and .mil currently exist for each expired domains.

This is pure gold for people looking to pick up domains that already have rank and authority in the search engines and either develop a site or business around it, or use it to drive traffic to an existing website.  This tool alone is worth the price, please check it out if your at all serious about building an online business.

ShoeMoney Tools is a definite "recommend" from us; and something everyone who runs a business online, or is thinking about developing an online business should take a serious look at.

When we talk about landing the perfect job, or creating “the career” we often focus on getting the education, the certification, the training (i.e. the technical aspects of the job).

Those things are of course extremely important and a necessary piece of the puzzle.

What many people overlook however, is the importance of building relationships.  Just as interconnecting networks of computers, routers and switches are the building blocks of the Internet; Interconnecting networks of people are really the life blood of business, of careers and ultimately of success.  Never downplay the importance of a connection, for that unlikely match-up might lead to the dream job, contract or business down the road.

Treating everyone with respect, and going out of your way to help others without the thought or need of an immediate return goes a long way to forging a reputation that mountains can be built upon. People will naturally gravitate toward things that make them feel good or better about themselves. Read the rest of this entry »

If you run a business online, the number one most important aspect of developing a successful business is attracting customers.  You can have the best product in the world, but if no one knows about it your business will never reach its full potential.

Running a business online requires the obvious:

1. Dedication to developing a great product or service
2. Researching what your customers need (and even more importantly what they want)
3. Finding ways to differentiate yourself from your competitors

As a business owner what you might not realize is that you need equal dedication to ensuring your website can be found when potential customers are searching for what you sell.

The days of “build it and they will come” are over.  Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a continuous process that is a requirement for online success. 

In an ideal situation, hiring a professional SEO consultant is your best bet.  If you don’t have the budget for professional SEO services (or even if you do but want to gain a better understanding of what SEO is all about), here is our list of 10 SEO sites you need to follow:

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Take a moment and imagine a world without computers, a world without applications. Its hard isn’t it? In today’s day and age it has become impossible to get certain things done without the help of a computer. And of course computer alone can’t do much if there aren’t proper application to assist you in what you are doing.

Web applications have come and gone. Some have stayed on top for years and have provided utmost value to the users and some have been dumped after their first use.

Today we bring you 29 Web Applications that are intended for students, businesses and webmasters. In this post you will find 29 web apps altogether divided in 3 groups - Students, Businesses and Webmasters. Under each link you will find a brief excerpt from their about us page which will give you a better idea as to how they might help you achieve what you are trying to do.

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If you are the IT manager for a small or medium sized business, school or non-profit (or even just a parent trying to keep your children from coming across inappropriate content), chances are you’ve toiled with cost effective ways to make your network more secure while increasing your users’s browsing speed and reliability.

You’ve also more than likely searched for a way to do all this while blocking access to various categories of websites (i.e. pornography, video streaming, etc) without having to constantly monitor, update and tweak.

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If you’re like me, you’ve been using Firefox for awhile, and you love when a new version comes out.  At the same time however, you’re dreading it because you know there’s a good chance some of your favorite plug-ins won’t work (at least not right away).

As an example, I use a Firefox extension “Signature” all the time for posting repetitive things like signatures, but also sometimes for complete responses to frequently asked questions.  I might have 3 or 4 paragraphs of text saved that I could easily drop in with this plug-in.

Unfortunately, the signature plug-in isn’t compatible with version 3.0 of Firefox (as of this writing).  Does this mean you just have to do without?  Well if it did, there wouldn’t be much need to right this article now would there? 

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