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Easy Solutions for Better Staff Punctuality

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By Allied Time

Just about every company will struggle with staff punctuality at one time or another. It doesn’t necessarily mean your employees are being lazy or thoughtless, often it just becomes part of the natural rhythm of the office. But there comes a time when it’s necessary to knock out the problem once and for all. And if you’ve reached that point, one of the best solutions out there is employee time clock software.

 

Thanks to modern advances in technology, there are more options than ever before. This also means that many perfectly suitable varieties are cheaper than ever too. So your company doesn’t have to break the bank in order to make sure they have time clock systems that keep people on schedule.

There are a number of different versions you can choose from of course. Some of the best, however, are those that make reporting easy. This way you can get perspective on the issue at will. You can also easily approach the employee or employees in question and let them know how big the problem is and that you’re able to keep an eye on it with ease.

Lastly, look for systems like those that check fingerprints to stop employees from trying to help each other out by checking in for them.

Allied Time sells all kinds of employee time clock options you can use to enhance punctuality. For example, your company can use web time and attendance system better track your employees’ attendance thanks to options like those from Icon time systems.

Internet Support for Start Up Enterprises

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By Rack Alley

In modern America, most if not all enterprises nowadays, whether a start up or existing are utilizing technology to improve overall efficiency. Computers are used to encode large amounts of data and transferred across a network. All these information are stored and processed through the use of servers that allocate bandwidth and is in charge of actually transferring the data from one computer to the other.

While it would be nice to be able to be independent as a company, there are some tasks that are better outsourced, either because of high initial costs and better visibility.

Required Infrastructure

Setting up your own network requires a lot of hardware, as well as software. There are many components that are required to set it up and not all start up enterprises can afford their own server and network infrastructure. This is where companies that offer la colocation, such as Rack Alley, come in. They can easily setup and maintain your servers so you don’t have to, allowing you to focus on more important tasks at hand.

Be visible and accessible

In times where computers are part of everyday life and with people turning to the internet to find what they need, it is highly crucial that your company has a website and can easily be found through a simple Google search. To make this possible, companies must enlist la web hosting services to handle their websites and make it easily accessible through any computer or mobile device with internet capabilities.

Rack Alley is an internet services provider with strong structural background and secure la data centers that are fast and reliable.

What You Should Do If You Like To Continue Using Windows XP

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Almost every expert in the world of technology agrees: we all need to stop using Windows XP.

However, taking this advice might be easier said than done. Maybe your business uses a particular application that can run only on Windows XP. Maybe you can’t afford a new PC along with your old one not being powerful enough to take an upgrade.

So, if you find yourself in any of these situations, it’s better to heed the warning since once these updates stop, your data will more vulnerable than ever.

If you still can’t give it up, then try the old-fashioned method of disconnecting it from the internet as a standalone workstation and buy another PC or tablet for your email and browsing needs.

If that still doesn’t work for you, then it’s time to consider these other steps as well. Some of these steps include:

#1: A full security suite

A simple antivirus connection will not be enough. Instead, you will have to get an entire internet security suite which includes a firewall and exploit protection. Kapersky Internet Security is an ideal option.

#2: Firefox or Chrome are your best options

An outdated browser is just asking for trouble and an open door for malware. Any version of Internet Explorer that runs on Windows XP is really outdated. However, both Firefox and Google Chrome will still run on your system protected.

#3: Protect your browser

For additional security, scripts can deliver malware onto your system if left unprotected. For this, the right browser add-ins can stop them. You can customize the add-ins and make exceptions. So, when using Firefox, make sure you install only NoScript Security Suite and Chrome, use NotScripts.

Testing Tips for Display Advertising

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This article was written by Ted Dhanik

Multivariate testing is the first step an affiliate marketer takes towards scaling a successful display advertising campaign. Testing is so important that even Google does it, famously scrutinizing which shade of blue is best for its logo. Data should drive your decision making, so learn how to harness it and apply it to your situations.

Segment Campaigns

Start by segmenting your campaign based on the kinds of testing you want to accomplish. For example, testing for keyword and location, or keyword and demographic. Dividing your campaigns this way helps you focus on your objectives, and record your results. Don’t forget to encode your URLs with some kind of tracking ID so you can verify which campaigns actually deliver leads to you.

Have a Theory

Approaching your banner advertising with a certain outcome in mind will help inform your decision making. One way to make this work for you is to identify something that works about your campaign and then improve the results. For example, you might recognize that a banner gets plenty of clicks and work toward scaling that for conversions.

Create a Process

Document your testing process and be sure that you follow that protocol with each test that you set up. You need to establish what you measure, how you report those results, and some standards for changes to make. Without these rules, you risk testing yourself off-topic. It helps to establish a protocol for reporting too, because that helps you focus on the results you want.

Bio: Ted Dhanik is an expert in the field of display advertising and direct marketing. With over fifteen years of experience in sales, Ted Dhanik has the experience to help businesses convert more customers. Read Ted Dhanik online for tips on how media buying can grow your business.

What You Need to Know About Creating Email Aliases on Outlook

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One of the reasons why Outlook is such a good email service is because of the email aliases it offer its users.

But what is an email alias?

Simply put, it is a number of email addresses that actually belong to just one Microsoft account.

Why would one need an email alias?

Not only can you use one of these junk addresses when you are forced to sign up on websites but also a difficult to guess alias address as your password recovery address that hackers would never be able to guess.

That said, here’s how you can create an alias in Outlook.com:

#1: Click on the ‘settings’ cog in the upper right hand corner of your screen and select ‘More email settings’.

#2: Now select ‘Create an Outlook alias’ that is under ‘Managing your alias’.

#3: Now think of an email address that you would like, and enter it in the boxes either with an Outlook, Hotmail or even Live address at the end.

It’s as simple as that. However, if the email alias that you have picked hasn’t been taken, then Outlook will move you back to your inbox where you can choose whether to receive email from your new alias address sent to a particular folder or your inbox itself.

However, it’s a good idea to wait for a few minutes for a notification from Outlook informing you that your alias is ready for use.

Just remember that you have to use the same password of your Microsoft account so as to log in to this alias email created.

How to Create Compelling Banner Ads

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This article was written by Ted Dhanik.

Banner advertising relies on the integration of text and imagery to create compelling sales propositions. If you’re hunting for a new banner to advertise, or you are designing your own, there are some important practices you need to know if you expect to get conversions. Be prepared to spend money on testing, but you can achieve the results you want if you make intelligent decisions on your experiments.

Research

Begin by researching your audience. Find out which sites they visit, what other products they buy and get a feel for what motivates them. It’s helpful to know their age demographics, and a bit about where they live. Especially if you’re working in real estate or other programs that are highly specific to locations. The more you know, the more targeting you can do to narrow down the irrelevant clicks you’ll receive.

Copywriting

You should choose every word in your text very carefully. With display advertising, you have a very limited space to include text. You need to make sure that the text sells your products with compelling language. Too much text and your banner will look cluttered and unprofessional. Too little and you risk missing the key sales propositions for your clients. Try reviewing your competition, taking note of common words or phrases that you see in the ads you review.

Provide Value

The last trick is to provide actual value to customers. Whether that is a free report or an estimate for the service you provide, use something valuable to entice them. For instance, a mortgage offer looks more compelling when the user can see real savings figures based on their situations.

Ted Dhanik, provider of display advertising and high performance marketing solutions. Ted Dhanik is the CEO of marketing company engage:BDR. Ted Dhanik mentors business owners interested in start-ups.

New Species of River Dolphin Surfaces in the Amazon

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This article was written by Phin Upham,

For the first time in 100 years, scientists have uncovered a new species of river dolphin from the Amazon. The dolphin was discovered in the Araguaia River, deep within the Brazilian rainforest. A recent announcement in the Plos One scientific journal made the discovery official.

The lead author of the study, biologist Tomas Hrbek operating out of the city of Manaus, claims that the new species is only the third ever to be found in the region.

Researchers estimate there may be approximately 1,000 of the Araguia River dolphins still in the wild. The group further suggests the dolphins be placed on the endangered species list, so that resources can be devoted to protecting their development. Current construction projects on hydro-electric dams threaten the habitats of these dolphins through fragmentation.

Hrbek said that river dolphins are extremely rare, and one of the Earth’s most endangered vertebrates. This discovery represents a new hope for the dolphin. Apparently the animal was commonly recognized, but never studied in detail. It was only after Hrbek’s team used DNA samples to determine that the dolphin was genetically different from other species already present in the Amazon.

The previous river dolphin discovery occurred in 1918, when scientists identified the Chinese baiji dolphin, which went into extinction in 2006. All river dolphins are threatened by extinction, so efforts must be taken to protect these creatures and their habitats.

About the Author: Phin Upham is an investor at a family office/hedgefund, where he focuses on special situation illiquid investing. Before this position, Phin Upham was working at Morgan Stanley in the Media & Technology group. You may contact Phin on his LinkedIn page.

What Every Employer Needs to Know about Bring Your Own Device

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The newest trends hitting the Silicon Valley is the BYOD initiative. It stands for “Bring Your Own Device” and it’s a theory on productivity that leverages an employee’s existing equipment for business purposes. Done properly, BYOD can greatly increase your output and keep your employees happy while they work. Done wrong and you can expect catastrophic consequences for your network. Before you let employees bring their own devices, be sure you have assessed the risks. Make proper allowances like a terminal server monitor to check traffic on the network. Protecting the data hosted by your corporation is a serious responsibility, and customers will react negatively to a breach of trust.

Effects on Productivity

The theory of BYOD states that employees are happier using devices they are already familiar with. Logic dictates that a person would want to separate work from home computers, but that is not actually the case in practice. BYOD offices do find that employees are more familiar with their own setups, and may be more likely to take care of a computer because it is their own. Employers also benefit from reduced costs of staffing an office. But be wary, not all the grass is greener.

Viral Protection

Employees who do protect their devices adequately are the exception, not the rule. As a result, employers must deal with intrusions on their networks that may come from off-site or from a device not on the corporate network. This sounds ok at first, it should be relatively simple to remove most infections, but your IT department is seriously unprepared for major issues on the network. If IT is an investigator, BYOD removes all evidence of the source of the attack and makes it difficult to prevent future intrusions.

Accessibility

Remote employees need access to their files, and BYOD encourages more employees to work remotely. When everything is saved to a home computer, employees are likely to work at home. This also means that IT departments need to make files accessible from remote locations, which requires server infrastructure. That kind of work requires a lot of resources that small and mid-sized businesses don’t have. Outsourcing cloud computing is a popular choice for these fledgling businesses.

Monitoring Productivity

Remote workers are expected to hand in deliverables, and should be held to deadlines. Some companies use remote desktop monitoring to make this process easier. Checking network traffic helps you see what employees are doing with their time, and pinpoint errors. Most companies use a VPN or a remote server to accomplish this task, which is perfect for BYOD offices.

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RDPSoft Company offers solutions to log remote desktop interactions for businesses with employees who work off-site.

How to Preview PDF Documents in a 64-bit version of Windows 7

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It’s common knowledge that the 32-bit version of Windows 7 was able to preview PDFs effortlessly.

The same cannot be said with newer computers which run the 64-bit version of Windows 7 albeit with a powerful processor. And it’s not very different with Windows 8 either.

If one would ask “Why?”, you’d be hard pressed to find the logic behind Microsoft’s decisions.

That said, there are solutions for the 64-bit version of Windows 7 and in particular, we’re talking about Vivid Document Imaging’s “PDF Preview for Windows 7”.

Once you install it, you’ll find that previews of your PDF documents are immediately available. You can also preview the PDF in the Windows Explorer Preview pane…

Of course, there are issues that crop up during its installation since it asks you if you want to place a shortcut on your desktop. Even if you decline, it will place not one but three shortcuts which you can easily delete, of course.

But that’s not all, the program will add its own PDF Viewer which is simply called PDF Viewer but will also tell Windows to make it the default program for .pdfs files. You can change the default viewer back to the one you want.

However, if you choose Adobe Reader, PDF Preview will not show thumbnails of the PDF documents but you will still be able to preview the documents using the Windows Explorer preview pane.

Of course, if Foxit is your preferred viewer, then you won’t have any problems. Yet it must be said that this program still does not work with Windows 8.

How You Can Speed Up Your Browsing Using Vimium

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Trackpads or mice aren’t very helpful when it comes to browsing the Web with speed, and which is why keyboard shortcuts will come in handy.

Of course, it isn’t easy to memorize all the keyboard shortcuts. It’s just as painful as moving your hands from the keyboard to the mouse and back again.

This is where Vimium comes in – a browser extension for Chrome which will help you control all your browsing from your keyboard.

The first thing that you will have to do is download and install this extension from the Chrome Web Store. You can find a similar version from Firefox’s add-on repository.

Now all you have to open a website, and check if a couple of shortcuts work. For example, type ‘G’ and watch to see if you drop to the bottom of the site. Alternatively, if you type ‘gg’, you should you go back to the top of the page.

There are a number of shortcuts that you can use when you install Vimium that could be anything from switching between tabs to even opening links.

While the majority of sites will work perfectly with Vimium, a number of Google properties such as Gmail, Chrome new tab page as well as the Chrome Web Store don’t. There are other websites that won’t because they have their own shortcuts.

After you’ve tried the first two commands, type ‘?’ in any website where Vimium works, and you should get a complete list of commands.