Labor Day is a fun holiday for most people. You get a long weekend, spend time with your family, BBQ’s, you name it. It also marks the end of the summer for most people. Which means back to school for students and teachers. And on days like today, the end of vacation season and back to the grind for business people like lawyers and major corporations. Some of you are starting off your collegiate career today, and others are saying the final goodbye to their kids as they start their journey in life on their own.
With this comes issues in life, you write that first term paper, ya know the one that will set the tone for your entire academic career, and BOOM your drunk roommate spills his beer on your laptop. The world is ending, or is it? We here at Computer Geeks can help you. First thing you want to do is make sure the machine is completely off and unplugged. Then call us up to go over your options. If you can wait a few days, then it is best to do so, leave your PC off and upside down for a few days so it can dry out, before we come out to assess the damage and clean it out. If your needs are more pressing, we can come out right away and extract the hard drive and attempt to do data recovery for you. As well as set you up with a data backup solution so you never have to worry again.
For you parents who just let your little genius go off to school, you all know he/she was your computer repairman. There for you whenever you clicked on something you shouldn’t have. Or whenever you downloaded your 5th toolbar, they fixed you up. Now who do you call in a pinch? Computer Geeks 24/7 onsite computer repair service is here for you. Even though we can’t replace the hugs of your son/daughter, you don’t have to cook for us or do our laundry, so it all evens out in the end.
So, although Labor Day is now over, and it is back to business, know that someone is here for you when you have problems. Think you need Geek to help you? Click on the button below or give us a call at 617-262-2626 or feel free to visit us at our Beacon Hill office in Boston, MA
You heard it right ” Get a free year of LastPass Premium!”
If you are like me you have a ton of user names and passwords, on a lot of different sites. Using the same user name and password over and over is not only stupid, but it is dangerous and impossible. Every site has different naming rules for your passwords, must have 1 capital letter, needs a symbol, can’t have a symbol, needs a number and a capital letter, this list goes on for ages. Who can remember which variation of your user names and passwords that you used for 50 different web sites? LastPass can.
I was like most people, I knew my main password and the variations to an extent, and honestly relied on my browser to remember my password on a lot of things. But then disaster struck, I needed computer repair at my office in Boston. It was a bad hard drive and although data recovery was successful, my browser settings were reset and all my stored passwords were GONE.
I spoke to my boss about this and he immediately chimed in with “why aren’t you using LastPass?” To which I asked what it was, and he told me that LastPass stores all your passwords in 1 spot. All I would need to remember from now on was my LastPass password and I would never need to learn another password again. I was excited, but skeptical at the same time. What if someone hacked my LastPass account? Then they would have a smorgasbord of information from my student loans, to my credit cards even my bank account.
So I did my homework. ?LastPass has NEVER been hacked, NEVER. They are a security focused app, dedicated to securing passwords.?Furthermore, like any other service,?you should be using two-factor authentication with LastPass. If you do, someone with your master password still will not be able to access your account, even in the event of a breach. If you want to take it to the next level, you can?put together this awesome thumb drive-based system?and?enable these features?for extra two-factor security. LastPass is available for your desktop, and all smartphones and tablets! LastPass is also great for any types of businesses, like Law Firms or Dental Offices where you have a lot of different places you need to log in to.?
Members of my Downtown Chapter of BNI are always looking for ways to use BNI connect. One thing we are trying to do is get more visitors to come to our chapter.? One of the biggest tools that we can use is an email created by BNI to send to our visitors. ?There are a few steps to doing this and the walk-through below will show you how.
If you are a member of another chapter of BNI and want to learn how to invite a visitor this will work with any BNI member who has a BNI connect account. ?So if you are from another chapter please share this informative walk-through to help your chapter grow. ?If you have any questions about this walk-through please feel free to email me at jruthaford@geekchoice.com. ?If you have never heard of BNI before and maybe interested in joining a chapter you may also reach out to me.
BNI stands for Business Networking International and is an organization that has been formed to help businesses network with each other. ?I have been a member of the Downtown Boston BNI chapter for 3 years and I am part of the membership committee of our group.
Now here is how you send a visitor an email through BNI connect:
1. Sign into bniconnect
2. From there you are going to select the Operations selection at the top of the menu.
3.? Now you will have to select create email on the left side and then on the right you will see multiple selections and make sure to select Email Visitor Invitation.
4.? Now you will just have to put in the visitors information and you can also put in a personalized message and when that is complete just hit send and you are done!
Here is a look at the actual email your visitor would receive.
That is how you email a visitor through BNI connect.? Thank you for reading this walk-through. If you enjoyed this and want to learn more about Computer Geeks please visit our main page at geekchoice.com.?? Also don’t forget to like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.
This year, Amazon has created many ways to expand it’s empire, from drones to grocery delivery services. They’ve created their own credit card reader system, geared toward small businesses and to compete against systems like Square. It turns out they’re only scratching the surface.
Now they’re planning their own in-store payment system. They’re trying to make it easier for brick-and-motor shops (stores with physical presence and transactions between real people) to sell with Amazon. Meanwhile, Amazon shoppers can get their merchandise the same day it was paid for. The shippers’ job would be shortened greatly. If Amazon can convince business owners to use their in-store payment system, this could change everything for everybody. One way this could happen is the customer reserves the product on Amazon.com and they go to the physical store to pick it up. Or, customers see what they like, buy it at the store, and have it delivered the same day. As expected, Amazon personnel are being hush about this potential system. Wouldn’t want to spill too much too early. And whose to say this system will ever launch at all?
First and foremost, Amazon needs to start building trust relationships with these business owners. Nobody is going to do anything with you or for you unless they trust you. I would aim for mid-level businesses. Major corporations will probably be harder to coax into this system. Small businesses may not have the power or will to carry such a system. Nothing of this magnitude will happen quickly or suddenly. I doubt you will see Amazon’s in-store payment system anytime in 2014. This could do a lot of people a lot of good. Businesses could get more revenue through Amazon. Customers can get their product faster than waiting days for shipping. But could this system hinder small businesses and their systems?
I say that because the job search website Glassdoor has evaluated the top 25 best corporations to work for based on work culture. Work culture includes friendly co-workers, good pay, opportunities for advancement, comrade-re between co-workers, non-oppressive work hours, among other aspects. Of the top 25 companies with the best work culture, 11 of them are technology or Internet based. Twitter ranked number one. Google and Facebook made the top five. Apple staggers in at number 15, and Adobe at number 20. Why do so many tech companies have such great work culture? At many of these workplaces, even interns make more monthly than the average American. They have lots of perks and benefits. In fact, Google ranks number one in this category. Twitter employees praise the intelligence and friendliness of their co-workers. They even have team meetings on the roof. Why would anyone want to call in sick when your next meeting is on a roof overlooking a fabulous skyline?
There’s a lesson to be learned here. Not only do these companies have great work cultures, they are very successful to say the least! So employers, it does pay to treat your employees like decent human beings instead of property. And it doesn’t hurt to spoil them rotten once in a while. And you have to love what you do. When you’re working for a purpose, and not just a paycheck, of course people are going to have a positive attitude and the office culture will be pleasant. Which companies do you think have the worst work culture?
Imagine going out to dinner. You order the appetizer, entree, desert, maybe a couple of drinks. Then comes the awkward time to pay the tab and you’re scared of the damage you’ve done, more so if you’re paying for someone else or other people’s tab. Open Table is here to help.
Submitted for your approval is the Open Table’s payment feature app. It allows you to pay your bill, even the tip, with your smartphone device and the waiter doesn’t even have to give you the bill. Don’t go doing this everywhere. It’s only available in New York City. It’s only available at 45 restaurants in New York City. What the customer does is make the reservation, through Open Table, and open the app when they’re ready to pay (kinda like how I paid for coffee this morning). Open Table will email you the receipt. Sorry, this app can’t do split tabs. By the end of 2014, Open Table hopes to have the payment feature app functioning in 20 major U.S. cities. They’re not the first to venture into this. Cover is an app that lets you pay on your smartphone device. Not only that, Cover lets you split the bill.
You hear that, Open Table? I sometimes go out with a group of people to a restaurant. Sometimes a bill has to be split so the burden doesn’t fall on one person. Remember that. Other than that, I say this is a good app. It takes a lot of embarrassment away. Imagine when the check comes and not having enough cash or enough on your card. It lets you leave a little earlier too. I think it’s good for servers. It saves them time and energy, and they know they’re going to be paid. Have any of our New York City friends use this app?
