Wow! Will Smith refuses to be out worked by anyone. This is inspirational. Take 5 minutes to watch this short interview with Will Smith.

I cam across this excellent resource from the SCORE on how to do Government Contracting.   SCORE is made up of retired government  and private industry executives.   I use them sometimes to get answers to my questions for my Technology Company . The website provides several PDF files to get your started on your way to learning how to contract with the US Government.

Government Contracting | SCORE.

I wanted to share a cool tip to enable threaded comments in WordPress.  Why would you want to have threaded comments allows you to follow along in a conversation on a blog or web post.  Instead of guessing if a reply to a question or comment is related, you will now be able to see it directly below the related comment.

To enable this in WordPress, Log in to your WordPress Dashboard -> Settings -> Discussions -> Select Enable Threaded (nested) comments and apply the settings.   See the image below for what the discussion settings screen looks like.

enable WordPress threaded comments

Here is an example of what a threaded comment in WordPress looks like

Example WordPress Threaded Comment

Hope you found this tip useful.  Leave a comment below if you liked this tip, or know some additional WordPress tips you would like to share.

–Andre

Technology is an amazing thing. Computers these days can do everything but serve you coffee. With so many new bells and whistles, computers and the Internet have become hunting grounds for child predators. They attempt to reach your child through your computer and they can use webcams to do it.

It’s as if The Jetsons are alive and living in the 21st century. You can actually talk to someone through your computer and see them face to face. Using webcams, video equipment and microphones, kids can project their image across cyberspace.

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It’s new technology so kids are curious and excited. YouTube is a site devoted to video networking. Kids can upload videos of themselves doing everything from skateboarding to fixing their favorite milkshake. Once these videos are uploaded, people anywhere can see them.

Webcams aren’t all bad are they?

Webcams are useful for many reasons. First, families can stay in touch. This is especially nice for service men and women to see their families or grandparents to keep in touch with their grandkids who live miles away. A webcam lets you see the person in real time.

Click Image to Buy or Download a Free Trial Copy of Kaspersky Internet Security Suite

Secondly, webcams can be used for instructional videos, school projects and classes that are interactive. It’s like being there without being there.

What are the drawbacks?

With each new technological development there comes someone who wants to exploit it for its nefarious uses. Child predators use webcams to satisfy their sexual urges. Getting to your child with messages in chat rooms is dangerous enough, but with a webcam they can actually see them. It is as scary as it sounds.

If you’ve ever seen someone use a webcam online, they can post their webcam address and perform real time video sessions. Some people do it on their social site pages for friends, but the feed can be picked up by others and broadcast all over the world. Online predators can tap into these feeds and contact your child.

The relationship begins innocently. They talk to your child and might ask them to do things on camera like wearing a certain outfit or saying certain words. Over time the acts will get more explicit and the person may even offer money or gifts for the privilege of looking at your child.

Click Image to Buy or Download a Free Trial Copy of Kaspersky Internet Security Suite

What can a parent do?

Know your child and set up rules for using webcams. If your computer has a webcam keep it in the common area of the house. There is no need for webcams in a child’s bedroom.

Secondly, teach your kids not to post anything they wouldn’t want to be seen by a million others. It might seem like fun for your child to dance around in their nightgown to have fun with some girlfriends, but on the Internet that same footage could send the wrong message. Anyone your child sends the video to can post it as long as they have the link.

Our children don’t always make the right decisions so it is up to us to guide them in the right direction. Webcams might be fun for family and friends but they can be a dangerous avenue for sexual predators if used irresponsibly.

I came across this very creative and inspiring blog post (see link at the end of the article) from Seth Goodin, on how to use creative approaches to raise money for your business from Investors.   As a Small Business Owner,  I am always looking for ways to expand and grow the business.   FYI, hiring a Sales, Marketing, Administrative help, purchasing equipment or investing in new systems all require money.   I have been blessed to be able to get loans from the bank and lines of credit to fund several expansion projects.   However,  Seth’s post offered some ideas that I had not thought about before for raising funds.     I am adding these to my toolbox of tricks and tip.  What are some of the ways you raise funds for business or personal projects?  Leave a comment below.

Seth’s Blog: Debt, equity and a third thing that might work better.

For all my friends who are looking for a job or thinking about switching jobs, please pick-up a copy of this book from Amazon.  Knock Em Dead. It will help you to polish up your interviewing and negotiating skills.   You will thank me.  This book will help you with every aspect of the interviewing and negotiation process.

Let me share a story with you about my first job out of college many years ago. The company I wanted to work for HP, had made the lowest offer.   I followed the process in the book dealing with salary negotiation without “pissing” off your future boss.   With a little back and fort  I was able to  negotiate an extra $5000/year.  I worked for HP for two years.  That is a whopping $10,000 for reading a sub $20 book at that time.  This book now cost $10.  Can you afford not to read this book?  What is the ROI on that?  Is that a 1000% ROI?   Can you get that in the stock market?  I now have my own company , but I still continue to use the techniques learned in the book to negotiate deals all the time.

Click the link or the Photo above to get your Get your copy of knock Em Dead

The question I get asked all the time by my friends is, “Which Apple Mac computer do you recommend I buy Andre?”.   While there is no one answer for this question,  I decided to put my recommendations to my friends down on paper.    For starters,  it all depends on what you will use the Mac for.    If it will be just for web browser, reading e-mail and the occasional word processor box then I recommend you get the cheapest Apple or even a used one from a trusted friends who is into Macs.

Apple Mac Mini

The cheapest Mac at the moment is the Mac Mini around $599 or so.   It is the size of five stacked CDs.  All you need would be your existing keyboard, mouse and monitor from your old computer.   It does not include a webcam.  If you plan to expand into multimedia then you would go with a higher end notebook or desktop Apple with a dedicated video card and more memory capacity.  Below I provide my recommendations based on the purpose  that you plan to use the Mac for.

My Mac Recommendations:

Entry Level Mac aka e-mail/web browsing ($599 or so)

Get a mac mini.   You can buy it from Amazon.   You need at least 2GB of memory for all my recommendations to get any proper work done.  Buy the Apple Mac mini MB463LL/A Desktop from Amazon.com
PS: It is cheaper to buy your memory from Amazon or Newegg.com vs. Apple.

Nice all round Apple for home or office use ($1100 – $1600)

24 inch iMac Apple

Get an  iMac 20″ or 24″ buy your memory from NewEgg to upgrade to 4GB of memory if you plan to do some light multimedia work like creating home movies and burning your own DVD etc.  My personal workhouse computer for my home office is a 24″ iMac

I need a higher end Mac for travel ($1100 up)

13″ MacBook Pro (the lightest MacBook Pro)
See the Available 13 MacBook Pro on Amazon.com Get the cheapest one. There is not a lot of difference between 2.0GHz vs 2.4GHz. The price difference is in the size of the hard drive and processor speed. You can always buy an external hard drive with all the money you save 8-).

15.4 MacBook Pro  (This is my Notebook that I use all the time).
It is a bigger and heavier than the 13″ Macbook but still small enough to travel with.
More 15.4″ MacBook Pro laptops on Amazon

Nice Middle of the Road Mac laptop that is lightweight and easy to travel

I would go for the 13″ MacBook (not the MacBook Pro) it is nice and lightweight

Where should I buy my Mac?

You could head down to your nearest Apple retail Store.  However,  I purchase most of my equipment from Amazon.com, then Apple Refurbished site or Cragislist for a used Mac.  Just make sure that the used Mac you buy on Craigslist has a valid extended care warranty aka Apple Care.

Leave a comment below if you need additional clarification or have a question.

Here is another excellent video (webinar) from the Google Optimization team on how to correct the 7 deadly sins of a landing page. The video gets into why your should care about this and how to fix those 7 issues.  Even if you are not into Internet marketing, you will still benefit from the information contained in the video.

Here is a quick and helpful video from the Google Adwords team on how to properly format your text ads for maximum click thru. If you don’t know what Adwords is, you can skip to the next article.