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Never Check Email First Thing In The Morning

Sid Savara a widely regarded personal development trainer published 7 Reasons You Should Never Check Email First Thing In The Morning at his site sidsavara.com. #1 – Ignorance Is Bliss..fully Productive – When it comes to email, ignorance is bliss. That’s why if you’ve got something important you want to make progress on, the author [...]

Best Companies to Work For In Michigan – 2011

FORTUNE Magzinze recently published the 100 Best Companies to Work For 2011 and there were three Michigan based firms om the list. 26. Plante & Moran 29. Quicken Loans 68. Stryker rb- So please note that none of these high performing companies are car companies. I wrote about Michigan leading that nation in new tech [...]

Spot Can Run, But He Can’t Hide

The new pet-oriented Global Positioning Systems (GPS) on the market, now make it possible to constantly track your best friend according to a report in MIT’s Technology Review. The GPS devices made just for pets are generally small enough to be attached to a collar which allows Owners to track their furry companion’s every paw [...]

Tablet Info

The Tablet PC has long been a pet project for Microsoft founder Bill Gates, who showed the first Tablet PC prototype in 2000 at Comdex. Mr. Gates described the device, which featured input via stylus only, as an evolutionary step in PC functionality and usability. For the next ten years leading up to CEO Steve [...]

Never Check Email First Thing In The Morning

Business Sid Savara a widely regarded personal development trainer published 7 Reasons You Should Never Check Email First Thing In The Morning at his site sidsavara.com.

#1 – Ignorance Is Bliss..fully Productive – When it comes to email, ignorance is bliss. That’s why if you’ve got something important you want to make progress on, the author offers these four words for success:

Don’t check your email.

EmailsAs soon as you get in, work on something important for 30-45 minutes, and only then check email. If you can stand it, wait even longer. The article suggests that as long as you’re ignorant of everything else that’s going on outside, you can concentrate on what you want to work on.

Any new information you get can cause you to get distracted.

#2 – It’s Not Your Todo ListMr. Savara you know what is most important for you to work on the first thing in the morning you should go ahead and do it!

By checking email, you risk doing what someone else wants you to do. Or more bluntly, when you check your inbox, the emails you get are a todo list someone else makes for you.

Who is in charge of your time – you, or the person emailing you?

Changed priorities#3 – It’s An Excuse To Lack Direction – The author says that checking email is a low priority activity and that you may be checking email first thing in the morning because your todo list has gotten off track somewhere. He argues that when you don’t have a clear list of priorities, checking email becomes an urgent activity that you do at the expense of your important ones.

#4 – Reaction vs “Proaction” - When you check your email, you end up with more work to do – and because we’re in “check email” mode, we start replying to them at the expense of the task we were just working on. Rather than actively setting an agenda, email forces you to react to items as they come in – regardless of their true priority.

Mr. Savara says he prefer taking proactive actions, proaction. Work on the things that are important to you, regardless of whether they’re urgent or simply at the top of your inbox. Stop wasteful actions, and focus on productive actions instead.

Social networking sites#5 – Searching For Excuses Blindly checking email (or Twitter, or Facebook, or any number iTime wasters) is usually just searching for an excuse to not do the work that must be done according to the author.

Don’t fall into that trap. Don’t give yourself an out by checking your email for an excuse to fail. He urges, Don’t check your email  – acknowledge the task you need to get done, and do it.

Cross that bridge – it’s not going away.

#6 – There’s No Set Time Limit – Meetings get a bad rap for being a waste of time – but at least you usually know how long a meeting will last. But do you know how long you’re going to spend on email once you open your inbox, odds are you don’t know – or you’ll underestimate it.

The problem is, checking email only takes a minute but you can get sucked into follow-up activities that result from opening your email, and there’s no way of knowing how much time these will take.

You have a set time limit for how many productive hours you have in a day don’t let email suck you in and cause you to devote more time to it than you can afford.

#7 – It Builds Expectation – A lot of people says, “But I have to check my email! People expect a response from me in the morning!” The author believes that there are some requests that need immediate responses, but they’re much less frequent than you might think.

He argues that people expect a response from you in the morning because you’ve always responded first thing in the morning and you’ve built that expectation. The more often you check email, the more often people will expect you to check it. Just stop checking it first thing in the morning, and people won’t expect it anymore.

Mr Savara recommends the following email rules:

  • Only check if there is something specific you are looking for. Most important – don’t go fishing around. Check it with a specific plan, a specific email you’re looking for from a specific person.
  • Separate low value emails via filters (“rules” in outlook) or separate email addresses so you don’t even see them in your inbox when you check
  • Set a time limit. Commit to checking for 5 minutes, just to look for that one piece of information – and have your exit strategy ready. Before you open your inbox, decide what you’ll do if 1) the email is there 2) the email isn’t there 3) the email is incomplete. Don’t be reactionary – proactively decide what action you will take based on the outcomes you expect.
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Best Companies to Work For In Michigan – 2011

Michigan FORTUNE Magzinze recently published the 100 Best Companies to Work For 2011 and there were three Michigan based firms om the list.

26. Plante & Moran
29. Quicken Loans
68. Stryker

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So please note that none of these high performing companies are car companies. I wrote about Michigan leading that nation in new tech jobs here.

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Spot Can Run, But He Can’t Hide

Internet of ThingsThe new pet-oriented Global Positioning Systems (GPS) on the market, now make it possible to constantly track your best friend according to a report in MIT’s Technology Review.

Garmin GPSThe GPS devices made just for pets are generally small enough to be attached to a collar which allows Owners to track their furry companion’s every paw print in real-time. The New Jersey Star-Ledger points out unlike microchips embedded in the skin of an animal which store identifying information, these devices aren’t invasive, and owners don’t have to wait for a stranger to find and bring their lost pet to an animal shelter to scan the chip.

“This could easily be a multimillion-dollar category,” David Lummis, a “pet market analyst,” at New York-based market research firm Packaged Facts, recently told the New Jersey Star-Ledger. Pet owners are now more “crazy” about their four-legged friends than ever. If the recession is any indication, Mr. Lummis told the paper that he $58 billion pet products industry has merely slowed a few percentage points during the recession.

Tagg the Pet TrackerThat kind of consistent growth has attracted attention of  Qualcomm (QCOM) the biggest maker of mobile-phone chips.  San Diego-based Snaptracs, a wholly owned subsidiary of Qualcomm, has released Tagg the Pet Tracker.

The rechargeable Tagg device can be attached to a collar (provided it’s not a spiked or bejeweled one), plus a home base unit. Owners are able to set a virtual perimeter for Fido to wander. TR says a text message or email alert will be sent if Fido strays too far. The device has a battery life of some 30 days and is water-resistant; it’s intended for dogs (or cats) 10 pounds or heavier. The necessary hardware and one year of Verizon (VZ) service costs $200 according to Technology Review. The service costs $5 a month after that. It’s a small price to pay, Dave Vigil, president of Snaptracs told the paper, considering pets are becoming increasingly “like family members.” Users can also find their pets at any time through a computer or smart phone.

Jessie and WileyGPS giant Garmin (GRMN), has also entered the doggie lo-jack market. The paper says the Olathe, Kansas based company released the GTU 10 device, a 1.7-ounce gadget. Garmin users can also set up a perimeter and receive alerts, or track real-time from a mobile device or computer. The GTU 10 operates on AT&T‘s (T) wireless network and costs $200 for the first year and $50 a year after that.

Another competitor is Retriever. TR says Retriever has similar functions with virtual fences and alerts but adds a social networking element. Retriever will share Spot’s location with a friend, presumably so if your old pal Spot gets loose while you’re out-of-town, you can help steer the on-site rescue. To judge from its site, Retriever appears to not yet be on the market, nor is a projected price listed.

Technology Review also notes other products in this niche. Global Pet Finder, is not available anymore on Amazon (AMZN) as of this article. The SpotLight device costs $169.99 and is limited to T-Mobile coverage. SpotLight costs $179.88 per year for a subscription.  The Love My Pets device and 1 year subscription costs $189.95 uses the Sprint (S) network. The Love My Pets system costs $14.95 per month for a subscription according to a CSR.

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Qualcomm’s goal is to encourage new uses of its radio chips, not to make a hit product. These products are part of the Internet of Things. As the Apple (AAPL) iPod and iPhone have shown, people are willing to shell out a lot of cash for the things, but it is in the services where the money is to be made on the Internet of Things. Content is still king.

Tablet Info

The Tablet PC has long been a pet project for Microsoft founder Bill Gates, who showed the first Tablet PC prototype in 2000 at Comdex. Mr. Gates described the device, which featured input via stylus only, as an evolutionary step in PC functionality and usability. For the next ten years leading up to CEO Steve Ballmer‘s introduction of the new “slates”, which support Windows 7 touchscreen features, the company has tried to make the Tablet catch-on but with little success according to PCWorld.

Microsoft Office Coming To iPad Next Year – Report

Microsoft OfficeMicrosoft may be bringing Office to the iPad next year, according to a report in The Daily. The report cites unnamed sources, and says that Microsoft (MSFT) will also update its version of Office for the Mac next year.

On a business level, it might make sense the Apple (AAPL) iPad is making inroads into enterprise, and having some sort of Office client available for it would let Microsoft earn at least some money from these Apple invaders. It would also help make sure that Office 365 the company’s cloud-based business services would work on the iPad according to the BusinessInsider,

Microsoft might even do this at the risk of driving some enterprise customers to stick with iPads instead of adopting Windows 8 tablets. After all, Office and related back-end products has been driving Microsoft’s growth for the last year, while Windows sales have been pretty stagnant (I wrote about Office’s profitability here).

The BusinessInsider points out that Microsoft has NEVER released Office for the Mac in the same year (or before) Office for Windows. Microsoft is building Office 15 for Windows. It’s going to be a ton of work to revamp it to work with the Windows 8 tablet interface, or risk having it relegated to traditional PCs only (and having one less reason for customers to choose Windows 8 tablets). The Mac version of Office almost always comes a year after the Windows version. It COULD be different this time, but that would require a diversion of resources to a minority platform (the Mac still has less than 5% market share for personal computers).

Microsoft said through a spokesperson: “We already deliver Office on multiple platforms and devices and are committed to expanding in the future, but have nothing further to share today.”

BI says that expanding Office to the iPad is not crazy.

Dell Streak Discontinued

DellThe Dell Streak 7 won’t even get to turn one year old. The BusinessInsider noted that Dell (DELL) is pulling the plug on its unremarkable tablet, as indicated on its site.

This is only shortly after discontinuing the Dell Streak 5 as well.

BI recalled Walt Mossberg‘s February 2011 AllThingsD review of the tablet, he sums it all up with one sentence: “I found the compromises Dell made to get to that low price make it impossible for me to recommend the Streak 7.”

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I wrote about hardware companies abandoning the tablet market in 2012 here. Does this move make Dell a market leader?

Proof That The PC Is Dying

PC is dyingThe BusinessInsider noted this excellent chart from Horace Dediu @asymco as proof that the PC is dying a slow, painful death. Mr. Dediu’s chart shows PC sales, including Google (GOOG) Android and Apple (AAPL) iOS devices, from the dawn of time to today.

As you can see, PC sales have started to go flat. Based on recent numbers from last quarter, they may have already hit their peak.

Meanwhile, Macs are gaining steady momentum while Android and iOS devices are blowing up.

One thing BI thinks could break the trend are all those fancy new Ultrabooks displayed at CES. Those could give PC sales a major boost considering how cheap and efficient they are.

Apple Sues Chinese Outfit for Heresy

Steve Jobs Apple (AAPL) is suing a Chinese company for making graven idols of its founder Steve Jobs reports TechEye. Chinese company In Icons created an “eerily realistic” 12-inch action figure of Steve Jobs. TechEye says the model comes with the clothes and accessories such as the black faux turtleneck, blue jeans and sneakers. It was being sold in a box that looks like Walter Isaacson‘s “Steve Jobs” biography cover, and comes with a chair, a “One More Thing…” backdrop, as well as two red apples, including one with a bite in it.

Apple sees this an affront and has told In Icons that using Apple’s logo or products, or Jobs’ name or appearance, is a “criminal offence.” The article points out that the Pope and Elvis have similar deals on their merchandise.

But it is clear that its threat is going nowhere In Icons is not giving up.

Tandy Cheung, the entrepreneur behind In Icons told TechEye said that he was an Apple fanboy and a lot of people like him who want to have Jobs’ action figure. Cheung spoke with several lawyers from Hong Kong who told him that he wasn’t in violation unless he decided to brand any of his designs with Apple products or logos. He told IB Times that Steve Jobs was not an actor, he’s just a celebrity. There is no copyright protection for a normal person. Steve Jobs is not a product.

BuzzFeed updates that the promo pics from toy company In Icons might suggest that the late Apple co-founder comes with cool accessories, but alas. For $99 all you get is the black turtleneck-clad 12” action figure, no assembly required. Due for U.S. release in late February.

Don’t Fear the iPad

Network security Dark Reading reports that as workers bring their consumer devices to the workplace and expect to use them, many IT teams have raised concerns over the impact of mobile devices on a business’ security.

Tablet computersThe first reaction to the trend of consumerization of IT has typically been to ban smartphones and tablets. Slowly, companies are opening up Bring Your Own Technology (BYOT) programs and attempting to better manage the devices. Yet Josh Corman, director of security intelligence for Akamai (AKAM) told DarkReading firms should speed things up at least in the case of iPads.

He says firms that switch employees from general-purpose computers to more limited devices, such as the Apple (AAPL) iPad, could reap significant security benefits. “When new IT comes out, it is not ipso facto secure, consumer devices typically lag,” Mr. Corman told DarkReading. “But in this particular case, the adoption is of something that is inherently more defensible and inherently less complex.”

Apple ComputersMr. Corman looks at the more tightly controlled software ecosystem for iPads and sees fewer avenues for attackers to compromise corporate networks. The devices are simpler than general-purpose computer workstations, and that’s a benefit for security, he told DarkReading. “We know that complexity is the enemy of security, but we accept very high levels of complexity in our compute environments,” Mr. Corman says.

The article reports that the reasoning parallels that used by Microsoft (MSFT) when the company embarked on its mission to harden its Windows operating system. A measure of its progress was the reduction of the operating system’s attack surface area, a measure of the ease of which attackers could get access to and exploit critical functions. By reducing the ability for attackers to inject code into the system, Microsoft reduced the attack surface area and increased security. Similarly, simpler software systems, such as the iPad, used as part of a comprehensive attempt to reduce complexity in a company’s computational environment could have a similar effect.

Android logoAs long as the tablets can satisfy worker requirements, then a company could garner security benefits, agrees Frank Andrus, CTO for Bradford Networks, a network security provider. Not all tablets are created equal the more open Android platform might not offer as many security benefits as Apple’s more controlled product, “They can more easily be taken advantage of by an attacker,” he told DarkReading.

The mobile devices, however, pose a greater hazard to sensitive company data, he says. Because employees carry smartphones and tablets to places they would not bring a laptop, companies do run a greater risk of exposing data on lost and stolen devices, he says.

Weak linkIn addition, unless a company completely converts its employees to tablets for work, they will just be adding another attack surface to its IT systems, not subtracting a more complex system, Tim Matthews, a director of data-loss prevention products for Symantec told DarkReading. “The problem is that you don’t necessarily reduce the attack surface because you are not replacing your laptop yet,” he says.

To protect against the loss or theft of devices, and the resulting data leakage, companies should employee mobile device management (MDM), Mr. Matthews says. MDM software can also limit the applications installed on an employee-owned device and enforce role-based security on devices that attempt to connect to a corporate network.

In the end, allowing employees to use locked-down tablets, such as the iPad, can increase security, but only if the company pays attention to how employees are using the devices, he says.

Steve Ballmer

Where's my tablet?

“These guys are working on the plane or working at home, adding to a company’s productivity, but they are doing so in an unprotected way,” Matthews says. “And that’s a problem.”

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Mobile devices bring a different set of threats, but more employees on hard-to-hack tablets means better security.

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