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I can definitely agree with the statement that, after a little while, running your own business can be pretty lonely. Many people that I have talked to say the same thing, and the reason behind it is lack of human interaction. I see this happening on two fronts. First, while you are working, you are more than likely alone in your home office, or working closely with one other person. This means that while you work, you aren’t out building face-to-face relationships (even if you are communicating via email or instant messaging). Then, unlike working for someone else’s company, you don’t have the eight-hour day that ends with you going home and out into the world. If you are a true entrepreneur, you are more than likely soaking yourself into your work day and night, which even further limits the amount of face-to-face contact you can have.
Fortunately, there is some good advice out there on how to handle this phenomenon. First, as we have talked about previously, get out there and meet with your clients/customers/userbase/colleagues in face-to-face situations. Nothing beats that.
Read on for a few more tips on beating the home business blues.
Click to continue reading Beating the Home Business Blues
So, I iPodded My Baby
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Wearables, Features, Portable Audio / Video,
So, at the beginning of August we came across a service/internet store called iPod My Baby. After talking about it, I said to myself “Hey, I have a baby - why not iPod him?” After waiting three times longer than the site said it should take for shipping, the package finally arrived, and the results are oh-so-cute, as you can see. Of course, Alijah is known as the gadget baby - it took a combination of a cell phone and iPod to get him to crawl, and a Nintendo DS to get him to say his first word - that being “Apple”, the name of my Golden Retriever pup in Nintendogs. Jump down for a couple more images. Oh, and if you have images of your baby in one of these, please send them in. We would love to post more.
Click to continue reading So, I iPodded My Baby
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Someone at the Genius Bar had a great interaction with a customer due to Pieter Hartzenberg’s iSpeak text-to-speech widget. What was the big deal? Well, here is the letter from the Apple Retail Store Genius to Pieter:
My name is Derek Rose, and I work at an Apple Retail store in Nashville, TN. Just wanted to let you know that I just had a customer come in to the Genius Bar with fears that they had been “Hacked” by your widget. I know that sounds silly, but the reason she thought that is because her young son downloaded the widget, and then when the widget said “Hey sexy, What would you like me to say?” she thought that some Internet pervert hacker was talking to her son through the widget.
I just wanted to notify you of that issue, and maybe suggest you change the default text to something else, just because it will invariably be used by other kids, and other parents may find it inappropriate as well. I was able to change the default text in the JS file for this customer, but just wanted to let you know about that interesting visit from the customer. 😊
(Thanks falcoboy7!)
Read More 
| Pieters Blog via TUAW
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Personal Storage Disk: SD Card and USB Memory in One
Posted by Edwin Soto Categories: Accessories, Peripherals,
Here is another SD card that has an extension to allow it to be used as a USB 2.0 drive in and of itself. This particular one is made by PDC Taiwan, and there have been others including the Sandisk Ultra II SD Plus and INX-USD.
Read More | Slashphone
Looks like Samsung has been hard at work cramming even more flash memory into a tiny form factor. The company has announced 1GB and 2GB MMC Plus cards, perfect for digital cameras. The MMC Mobile cards are half the size of MMC Plus cards, and are the first MMC mobile cards to reach the 1GB range. Both cards have absolutely stunning response times - about three times more than your standard SD card. Their low voltage is great for mobile phones which prefer low energy cards like these.
The new cards are capable of transmitting data at 52MBytes per second, up to 20 times faster than previous MMC versions, by supporting wider (x4 and x8) bus widths and faster clock speeds (up to 52MHz).
Read More | Physorg
As an Internet entrepreneur, one of the first things you will want to look for is small business software. All programs are different, with varying features and price ranges, but there is a fit for any type of business. You can pick and choose if you want to go small scale, using Outlook for contact management and Quicken to manage your books for example. You can also go with software that combines many features into one package:
Core features of a small business software :
- Contact Management
- Sales Force Automation
- Inventory Management
- Purchasing and Vendor Management
- Productivity Tools
- Payroll and Employee Management
- Financial Management
- Time and Billing
- Fully integrated Web Store
- Order Management and Fulfillment
- Customer and Vendor Center
- Shipping Module
- Customization
Sit down and just write out your business process to see what types of things a software solution can help with. After doing that, choosing the right package should be simple.
Click to continue reading Choosing Small Business Software
Microsoft Looking To Times Square For Xbox 360 Store?
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Corporate News, Xbox 360,
Word on the street is that Microsoft has been sizing up the 18,000-square foot location at One Times Square to play host to an Xbox 360 store. The New York Post has reported that the company is strongly considering the possibility of opening a four-story retail location at this location, which happens to be the same building used for the annual dropping of the New Year’s ball. Those who have seen Microsoft’s Xbox booth at E3 know that the company could very easily fill four floors with nothing but Xbox 360 gaming goodness, and it doesn’t get much bigger than Times Square. It would also be a nice way for Microsoft to steal some attention away from the sleek Apple and Sony Style stores that are continually popping up, and would be more impressive than Nintendo’s Rockefeller Center store.
(Thanks Veronica!)
Read More | Seattle Times
The next title in the Soul Calibur series is hitting PlayStation 2 this October. Namco has released an official site for the game that is full of Flash goodness. You can view clips of the individual characters from the game, as well as read the Soul Calibur storyline. This game is already shaping up to be one of the games that make us remember that there is still plenty of gaming left in this generation.
Read More | Soul Calibur 3
As of now, the only definitive way to diagnose Alzheimer’s disease is through an autopsy, but new technology from Aspect Medical Systems is helping to change that. The procedure, which has not yet been approved by the FDA, changes data received through an EEG (electroencephalogram) into a number between 0 to 100, measuring the amount of electrical brain activity. This technology is currently in place in operating rooms where it is used to monitor patients during surgery, but once in place for diagnosing Alzheimer’s could possibly help doctors understand the disease better, leading to earlier diagnoses and maybe even finding a cure sooner than expected.
Read More | Wired
