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iTechSpeak :::...

"THE HUMAN SIDE OF TECHNOLOGY" for convenience, productivity, safety, profitability or fun. This is the place to be to keep your finger on the pulse in emerging technologies. When should you zig when everyone else zags? Where should you concentrate your time, money or effort to capitalize on the next technology tsunami? Stay tuned . . . -Published by SAVVY INTRAPRENEUR

DIY Identity Theft Protection Credit Freeze

Posted by Carl E. Reid, CSI Thursday, May 25, 2017 0 comments

photo courtesy of Canva.com
by Carl E Reid,
Evernote certified consultant

This is a do it yourself (DIY) project, with 3 instructional videos. Submitting a credit freeze protects you from thieves attempting to steal your identity by creating NEW credit accounts in your name. I have tested this several times by applying for credit cards, applying for a loan and opening new bank accounts. Each time the new credit requests were submitted I consistently received those rejection letters via snail mail.

 Once the credit report is frozen any legitimate requests for credit cards, loans, job background credit checks, landlord rental credit checks or mortgages will be rejected. You will submit a separate request to temporarily or permanently lift the credit freeze, if you wish open credit accounts. The reporting agency will notify you of all legitimate and fraudulent requests to access your credit report.

 If you want to lock your credit reports, below are the online applications for credit reporting agencies.

 Click here to Submit request for EQUIFAX Security Freeze

Click here to submit request for EXPERIAN Security Freeze

Click here to submit a TransUnion Security Freeze
Below are 3 informational videos.






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Reminder: Beware Of Phishing Emails

Posted by Carl E. Reid, CSI Tuesday, November 15, 2016 0 comments

Clicking on ANY links in these types of emails can potentially cause irreparable damage to your computer or information stored on your computer network.

 Did I mention the part about possible identity theft can be accomplished from these types of emails too?

 Please familiarize yourself with the tonality, typos and poor grammar of the 3 sample phishing emails that provide clues below.

 This is a reminder to be Suspicious of emails telling you to . . . 

  • Appear in court
  • Update your account
  • You owe a debt and click on the attachment for details
  • Update your American Express / Credit card account

If you received a similar phishing (fishing) emails, please DELETE it immediately.  
Please call American Express directly to confirm "real" account issues.

 Sample #1 of Recent phishing email NOT from American Express
From: "American Express" <Americanexpress@securityserver.com>
To: YOU@YourEmailAddress.com
Sent: Saturday, August 23, 2014 8:15:52 AM
Subject: Unauthorized activity on your online account

 Dear Customer:

 Your account requires a complete profile update,

 We have recently detected that a different computer user has attempted gaining access to your online account, and multiple wrong passwords were attempted with your user ID.

 It is now necessary to re-confirm your account information to us. If this process is not completed within 24-48 hours,

 we will be forced to suspend your account online access as it may have been used for fraudulent purposes.

 Please update your profile immediately by downloading the attached file.

 American Express is dedicated to protecting your information.

 _____________________________________

 Phishing Sample #2 to appear in Court
From: "Court Agent" <reference047@washingtontruckaccidentlawyers.com>
To: YOU@YourEmailAddress.com
Sent: Friday, August 22, 2014 4:44:15 PM
Subject: Illegal software use

 As a defendant you have been scheduled to attend the hearing in the Court of Port St. Lucie.

 Hearing date: 21 September 2014
Hearing time: 11:00 a.m.
Hearing subject: illegal use of software

 Prior to the court thoroughly study the plaint note in the attachment to this mail.

 Sincerely,
Court agent,
Alison Smith
_________________________________

 Sample #3 from BOGUS Helpdesk
From: "HELP DESK" <markwel@zoominternet.net>
Sent: Tuesday, July 29, 2014 8:56:02 AM
Subject: IT

 Dear Email Account Users,

 We are upgrading Email over the next several weeks We urge all urge to participate in this upgrade. With the new upgrade, you'll see new features and enhancements included

 Submit your details for confirmation of account. HERE

 Thanks for your Co-operation.
IT SERVICE DESK

 Thank you for being a valued customer.

 Kind Regards,

 SafeGuards Team.

 (C) 2016 American Express Company. All rights reserved.

 All users of our online services subject to Privacy Statement and agree to be bound by Terms of Service. Please review.

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Passphrase Smarter Than Password

Posted by Carl E. Reid, CSI Tuesday, November 8, 2016 0 comments

With the Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook passwords leaks, I thought this might be a good tutorial to share with staff, to make your technology customer support team's job easier. Modify as you feel appropriate. 

 How To Smartly Create Passwords 

  • Don't re-use passwords. One ultra-secure one won't be any good if someone finds it.
  • While combining upper and lower case passwords with numbers to alter a memorable word - M4rsin$pace - is often advised, these are more easily cracked than you might think
  • The best strategy advice is to create a memorable, PASSPHRASE sentence [don't use these samples]:  I$wimatTHEbeach2016 | "I am a $erious Winner in 2017" is better than "My name is John", and use the first letter of each word with punctuation: "Iaa$Wi2017"
  • Consider using a password manager such as 1Password, which generates and stores your secure passwords.
_____________________________________
About the Author - click here to contact Carl

With corporate travels from the mail room to the board room, Carl E. Reid knows what it takes to be successful in the business arena. He has over 46 years of business experience, including 34 years as an information technology expert, 20 years as a business startup / career coach and 23 years as a successful entrepreneur. In addition to being founder of Savvy Intrapreneur, Carl has been a professional blogger and social media expert since 2004. In addition to being a sought after speaker, he publishes Library of Congress recognized blog www.SavvyIntrapreneur.com.  Carl has been published in "Network World" and "Computer Monthly" magazines, resulting in being a technology expert witness in court. 
Email: IGetSmart@SavvyIntrapreneur.comWeb: www.CarlEReid.com
Tel: 201-222-5390Twitter: @CarlEReid @Intrapreneur @iTechSpeak
Click here to view Carl's Amazon Author page

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10 Emergency Survival Kit Technology Tips

Posted by Unknown Sunday, May 4, 2014 0 comments

Society lives in a different world than we did 20, 30, 40 or 50 years ago.  A childhood car ride to the airport included my father being able to take us right up to the boarding area just to watch planes land and take off.  Today, only ticketed, ID verified, bare foot, metal detector frisked passengers are allowed to go to the airport boarding area. Airport lines are longer, no more back packs at running / marathon races, metal detectors at high school dances and the hits just keep on coming.

 Aligned with our global societal issues, there is a strange phenomena that mother nature and her environmental children (weather, earth and water) appear to be willingly complicating our lives even more. Planning for natural disasters dictates having available technology so our business and personal lives can function with some semblance of normal.
 
Being a blessed Hurricane Sandy survivor, it was a week of deep introspection and being thankful for some technology gadgets my wife and I had in place.  Beyond the batteries, snacks, a first aid kit, a generator, flashlights and tunes your children listen to until their cell phone die, I share some food for thought to consider on essential technology considerations and gadgets to have in your home survival kit . . . just in case.

 1. Know whether 911 support is provided by your telephone [TRUE] land line provider, Internet phone provider and cell phone provider. Wow!! I just used the word "providers" 3 times for vendors who may or may not provide.  Contact each provider TODAY [aka, before your need] to find out how or if they provide 911 service. 

2. Have a battery powered AM/FM radio available.  This allows you to stay informed and make INTELLIGENT DECISIONS on next steps to protect your family. (i.e. should we stay or move quickly?)

 3. Back up and charged batteries for your phone, mobile devices, computer notebook.

 4. Have car cigarette lighter dual USB cables to charge 2 gadgets,. This especially works well if you have an iPhone and your spouse has an Android phone or vice versa. Plan ahead for acquiring appropriate charging adapters.

5. Back up your household Internet connection with an alternate 4G service, like Clear, Freedom Pop or Netzero.  They provide rechargeable routers, you will at least be able to connect your iPad or or notebook computer online to read and access necessary web sites. Downloading or uploading photos will not work well through these services, due to data speed restrictions. Having no electricity for 1 week during Hurricane Sandy, my wife I were really happy using our Clear device to run our business interests and communicate with clients. Clear is month to month service. So you can turn it ON and OFF, when it suits you.

6. A Solar charger for recharging all your mobile devices is a smart move. Using sunlight or overcast daylight is usually enough to keep your solar charger juiced.  Get 2 solar chargers, so you can work on your computer, your phone can be charging and your children have their own mobile device being recharged.

 7. Consider acquiring an emergency / weather scanner. This will provide additional information local to your area, which may not be provided by news reports on your AM/FM radio.  Before you acquire a scanner, please read the scanner usage laws in your state.  It is my understanding police scanner apps downloaded to mobile devices are illegal, once you take the device out of your house.

8. This may seem obvious, but download a battery manager onto your phone or mobile device.  This works well will with conserving power, your next available charge is unknown with the electricity power out. 

 9.   Update your ICE contacts on your cell phone address book and print them out on paper.

10. Set quarterly "To Do" reminders on your cell phone to check emergency gadgets being fully charged and have a family fire drill. Or you can use FollowUpThen.com to schedule email reminders for everyone in the family to check their back up rechargers.  Although unused, over time the available power in your emergency back up charged gadgets will dissipate.  Just like a fire extinguisher being periodically inspected, battery reliant electronic devices need to be checked on a scheduled basis, before you really need them.

BONUS 11. Back up your spreadsheets, word processor documents and any other essential data files you need to a key chain thumb drive.  If your computer goes south permanently, al least business presentations and personal life can be referenced or modified on another computer at the library, a neighbor's house or a local hotel.  You can never have too many back ups. Give your spouse a thumb drive key chain copy of files, as well.

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Happiness is Firing Your Cable Company

Posted by Unknown Sunday, November 17, 2013 0 comments


I just mailed my HD box back to the cable company and canceled my service, while still being able to view TV shows and movies at a tiny fraction of the cost. My personal board of directors (my family) is happy about the new income windfall due to the yearly savings.

Unless cable TV providers upgrade their business model, they may disappear with black and white television.

4 years back I bought a Sony Play Station 3 (PS3) to entertain my grand children when they visit. I never once played a video game on my PS3 or had any personal use for it. This may be due to overdosing on playing video games, when my brother and I ran a business distributing the original floor model video games in the 1980s. We had them in pizza parlors, Coney Island and other locations.  My job was business development and fixing the video games.  So I played a lot of free games after each repair.

Rewind to 3 weeks ago.  Out of sheer curiosity I decided to see what would happen, if I connected my PS3 between my Sony Bravia HDTV and the Internet.  After a 45 minute software upgrade to the PS3 operating system, I experienced an epiphany.  Without spending a dime I watched The History Channel, National Geographic, Mad Men, In Plain Sight and Burn Notice. These are the same shows I used to watch through my cable TV provider.

To help my Chief financial Officer (my wife) transition easier into this crazy idea of terminating the cable company, I purchased a $25 "TV like" remote control programmed to work specifically with the PS3.  She was not about to use the PS3 game control joy sticks to watch TV.  Voila, she is now a happy camper being able to watch American Pickers, Pawn Stars, Drop Dead Diva and other shows she likes.

I now get caught on the news by going to ChannelChooser.com, using the PS3 web browser.

Oh, did I mention being able to get on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn is easy on the eyes when being viewed on a 48" HDTV, from my reclining chair.

Total Startup Cost (minus PS3 cost since it was bought years ago)
$25.00 one time cost for PS3 TV remote control
1st month FREE for Netflix
Total monthly cost (starting next month): 8$ per month for Netflix. Estimate just under $10 with the taxes.

I'm not suggesting you drop $200 to 300 down to buy a PS3. A $100 Roku box will work just as well or better.  Cost includes a remote control.

Reach out to me, if you need a little technical advice before firing your cable company.

About the Author
---------------------
Carl E. Reid is a technology expert, social media strategist and business career coach at Savvy Intrapreneur. CReid3005[AT]gmail.com - Tel: 201-222-5390

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Business Intelligence on How To Brand with Twitter

Posted by Unknown Tuesday, March 12, 2013 0 comments

Did you know Twitter engagement rates are higher on Saturday and Sunday? Below is an excellent infographic provided by Linchpin SEO, which provides the clues needed to crack the mystery of how to really engage people on Twitter.  

As I mention to my clients, having a social media presence is not enough. Converting social media presence into "influence" is the challenge. Social media Influence is what really translates into sales leads or referrals for sales conversions.

People do business with people they know, like and trust.  The hard question is how do we get Social media to emulate this basic human interaction. Engaging conversations with people, which makes those people share your value with others.

The question I suggest my clients ask themselves [as they look at each social media platform] is "Are we selling something or sharing something of value?" Sharing value is what people tune in to and VALUE is what people share.

The Linchpin SEO does an excellent job of teaching how, when and why engaging people builds personal and business brands.


Twitter Cheat Sheet
Twitter Cheat Sheet , an infographic by Linchpin Infographic Design

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Squirreling Away Incandescent Light Bulbs Steals Money and Energy

Posted by Unknown Wednesday, March 6, 2013 0 comments

Back in 2007 our article Replace Incandescent Bulb with Fluorescent Bulb talked about how the U.S. Clean Energy Act of 2007 makes the incandescent light bulb go away, saves quite a bit of money on electric bills and creates awesome opportunities as the same time.  We failed to mention the bizarre things people might do to continue using those energy hogging incandescent light bulbs.

From a Business Week article, on January 1, 2013 traditional incandescent 75 watt bulbs were phased out. The phasing out of traditional 100 watt incandescent light bulbs in January 2012 ignited panic, making consumers take some wacky actions. 

 Home Depot reported a 20 percent spike in sales of 100 watt bulbs for 2011, as people rushed to stockpile for the future. At least one Ohio woman made sure to squirrel away enough bulbs to last 50 years. This time around, however, shoppers seem more relaxed. Bill Hamilton, president of light bulb merchandising at Home Depot, says, “Customers are beginning to embrace the new technology.”

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Silver Alert vs. Amber Alert

Posted by Unknown Friday, February 15, 2013 0 comments

So I'm driving south on the New Jersey Turnpike for a meeting in Trenton.  I passed several digital highway signs flashing a Silver Alert with a license plate number.  For the life of me, I could not figure out what this Silver Alert was about.

 After doing a little research [not while driving], I found out “Silver Alert” or “Senior Alert” programs help identify and locate missing seniors with cognitive impairments (i.e. Alzheimer's Disease, dementia etc.). Modeled after the United States federal Amber Alert system for abducted children, Silver Alert programs create an emergency notification system in which law enforcement agencies broadcast using radio, television and electronic highway signs. Read details on how Silver Alert legislation started.

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Why the iPad2 is a Game-Changer

Posted by Ronald G. Richards Tuesday, October 4, 2011 0 comments


A game-changer is a term used to describe something that has the potential to alter the outcome when brought into an activity. In business, for something to be a game-changer, it has to produce an advantage. I will show why I think Apple’s iPad2 is a game-changer that can produce such an advantage.

Much has been written on the technological prowess of the iPad2. Articles have appeared on its specific use such as point-of-sale in retail, or as a replacement for medical clipboards in hospitals where notes can be recorded and shared; as well as checked against a patient’s entire medical record. While these uses reflect increased productivity and efficiency, they are “tactical” uses. I would like to present a hypothetical example of how the iPad2 can be used strategically, thus making it a game changer.

The scenario: You and a partner are real estate investors. You’ve done your research and found a good property. From your due diligence you find out there is distress to the property, which the current owner has let run down, and on the owner himself where other obligations are forcing him to sell.

The situation: The deal will only work if you get your offer accepted; however the owner is stubborn. Time is of the essence as your investors expect you to put the deal together now, but you can’t go any higher on your offer.

The dilemma: How do you convince the owner he is better off accepting your offer?

The solution: You meet with the owner and bring your iPad2. You show him a picture taken in a room at the top of the building. It shows a wall with dark stains in the upper corner where the wall meets the ceiling. You play a video you made showing your partner tapping on the wall, an action that produces a knocking sound until he reaches the area of the stain where a squishing sound is produced. It is undeniably soggy from water damage and likely indicates major roof repair is needed; something that was heretofore undetected. You start a video conference with your partner who just happens to be on the scene at the property with his own iPad2. You bring up documents, slides, and analysis with estimates supporting your conclusions. You ask the owner if he has any questions. You express sorrow, and though still interested in the property, will have to adjust your offer down to account for necessary repairs to the newly uncovered problems.

Advantage: iPad2.

The outcome: The offer is accepted.

You can see how this dynamic can move business activity in new ways. The iPad2 inspires creativity and imagination. It’s why I find the iPad2 such an exciting and transformative product.


An accomplished Program/Project Manager with extensive experience in consulting and business development in both public and private sectors. A professional bringing direction, motivation and experience to the table with an entrepreneurial approach to business development.  Accomplishment through organization and process; Business Continuity, Disaster Recovery, and Continuity of Operations are his forte. A strong advocate of Enterprise Resilience and Crisis Management currently engaged in establishing the practice of Supply Chain Resiliency for JVKellyGroup, Inc., an eminent Risk Management consulting firm.

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Simple Facebook Tip to Extend Personal Brand Reach

Posted by Unknown Saturday, May 14, 2011 0 comments

Most email software (i.e. outlook, gmail etc.) has a type-ahead feature. This is also referred to as auto-complete. This function remembers and stores addresses you send to. When you start typing names of a previously stored contacts, your email software will recognize it and offer suggestions for completing the name text for you.

Facebook has a similar type ahead feature, when posting "comments", on a "wall" or in a group.  As you will see in the picture above, using the "@" symbol and typing the first letter of a name triggers Facebook to present a drop down menu.  You can now select friends, business pages you "Like" and calendar events you published on Facebook.  Whatever selection you make from the menu  (i.e. a friend's name) will be converted to a hyper link people can click on and visit that page.  To complete the hyper link conversion, you must press to save a comment or click the "Share" button on a wall post.

By using the "@" symbol with a friend's name you extend your visibility. Your friend is notified on their Facebook news feed that you mentioned them. Your friend's friends also see your comment. 

This is a great way to edify friends, while getting your smiling face in front of new people.  You might even make some new friends.

Carl E. Reid
Social Media Strategist, Intrapreneur Coach, Author, Speaker
  Tel: 201-222-5390  *  Carl E. Reid.com
 "Success Synergy through Intrapreneur Savvy, Human Capital and Tech Strategy"
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