Should You Buy or Lease an Office Copier? | business.com

May 5, 2021May 4, 2021 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

If you need a copy machine, you have two options for getting one: You can buy it outright or lease one. Before making a decision, understand the pros and cons of buying versus leasing.

Regardless of the industry your business operates in or its size, there is likely a good chance that paper documents have some sort of role in your business. And while many organizations are making an effort to reduce their paper use to become more eco-friendly, printing a contract, presentation or a simple spreadsheet is something many still need to do. When it’s time to invest in an office copier, which for many these days doubles as an office printer, for your business, a good place to start is assessing the needs of your organization.

Would you prefer to own and maintain your equipment for the long haul, or does it make more sense to pay a steady monthly bill to lease the latest tech with regular updates and scheduled maintenance? There are benefits and drawbacks to either route, and understanding the differences could be critical to how your business operates in the future.

Tips to Understanding the Terms of Online Payday Loans | The Startup Magazine

May 5, 2021May 4, 2021 ~ knjohn ~ 1 Comment

Emergency financial expenses can be a serious drawback to most individuals and families. Very few people can manage to pay such expenses from their pockets without feeling the heat. The reason behind this is because not so many people have a saving culture, and even the few who do not earn enough to cater for their daily expenses and have enough to save. About 61% of families in the United States (US) are not able to pay an unexpected $400 without struggling. It is this lack of insufficient cash flow that pushes people to take an emergency or payday loan to cater for such expenses.

Much as they can assist you to cover those unexpected expenses and give you a short term relief, they can later affect your financial well being and your credit report if you do not understand their terms and conditions. Here are some things you should know about online payday loans to ensure that you choose the right one, and one that you will manage without a lot of pressure.

Why can’t Google get a grip on rip-off ads? | BBC News

May 4, 2021May 3, 2021 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Google has failed to stop “shyster” websites advertising on its search engine, despite promising to fix the problem, the BBC has found.

Adverts for unofficial services selling government documents such as travel permits and driving licences are against Google’s own rules.

But the BBC found adverts for expensive third-party sellers every time it searched during a 12-month period.

In a statement Google said it had taken down billions of rule-breaking adverts.

How to Manage the First Day Back in the Office (Hint: No Parties, but Lots of Flexibility) | Inc.com

May 4, 2021May 3, 2021 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Many businesses plan to officially reopen their workplaces by the summer. And with so many colleagues meeting in person for the first time in over a year, things are bound to be a little awkward.

“Initially, it was kind of eerie; it was kind of weird,” says Wilbur You, founder and CEO of marketing agency Youtech, a four-time Inc. 5000 honoree that reopened its Scottsdale, Arizona, office last summer and its Naperville, Illinois, headquarters this January. “We’ve never been in a situation like this before.”

Inc. asked CEOs of fast-growing businesses and workplace experts for their thoughts on the best way to execute a safe and equitable return to the office. While each company’s strategy looks different, business owners tend to agree that for now, leaders should listen to employees and stay flexible. Here’s their advice.

Data was the new oil, until the oil caught fire | TechCrunch

May 3, 2021May 2, 2021 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

We’ve been hearing how “data is the new oil” for more than a decade now, and in certain sectors, it’s a maxim that has more than panned out. From marketing and logistics to finance and product, decision-making is now dominated by data at all levels of most big private orgs (and if it isn’t, I’d be getting a résumé put together, stat).

So it might be a something of a surprise to learn that data, which could transform how we respond to the increasingly deadly disasters that regularly plague us, has been all but absent from much of emergency response this past decade. Far from being a geyser of digital oil, disaster response agencies and private organizations alike have for years tried to swell the scope and scale of the data being inputted into disaster response, with relatively meager results.

35 Years Later, Studies Show a Silver Lining From Chernobyl | WIRED

May 3, 2021May 2, 2021 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

ON THIS DAY in 1986, workers ran a safety test at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in northern Ukraine. But the test went awry, starting a fire in a reactor and leading to one of the largest nuclear disasters in history. Smoke from the fire and a second explosion launched radioactive elements into the atmosphere, scattering them over the surrounding fields and towns. Now, 35 years later, scientists are still uncovering the extent of the damage and starting to answer questions about the long-term legacy of radiation exposure on power plant workers, the people in the nearby community, and even their family members born years later.

In two papers published Thursday in Science, an international team of researchers took on two very different but important questions. The first paper tracked the effects of radiation on the children of people who were exposed and found that there were no transgenerational mutations that were passed down from those parents. The second focused on thyroid cancer caused by radiation exposure and examined how radiation acts on DNA to cause the growth of cancerous tumors.

President Joe Biden Gave His First Address to Congress. Here Are the Four Takeaways You Need to Know. | Entrepreneur

April 30, 2021April 29, 2021 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

President Joe Biden announced a $1.8 trillion plan on Wednesday to help low- and middle-income families. In his first address to Congress, Biden spoke about his American Families Plan that will be funded by taxing America’s richest.

Biden believes that his plan is needed to make a “once in a generation investment in our families and children.” Here are the four takeaways from his speech to a joint session of Congress, according to the Wall Street Journal’s executive Washington editor Gerald Seib.

How To Engage Your Clients | Getentrepreneurial.com

April 30, 2021April 29, 2021 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

For the last 20-plus years, email has become the standard form of communication for reaching out to clients. Ask any marketer for the last 10 years in particular, and they’ll say one of the top things a business should focus on is building their (email) list.

Snail mail is just too slow, and this increasingly-fast paced world makes a classic phone call unrealistic – what, are you going to call each person individually on your list? Or worse, are you going to have an automated bot interrupt their day with a phone call that is devoid of actual communication?

But now, email too is reaching a ceiling. Is your email going to their SPAM folder? Is it going to their “junk” email address that they use to sign up for all the mailing lists? Is it getting lost between an advertisement from their favorite clothing store and a digital copy of their phone bill?

Artist draws attention to the single-use plastic crisis | Inhabitat

April 29, 2021April 28, 2021 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

New York City is famously a center for culture and creativity in the U.S. But even in a city that’s filled with so much to see and do, one art exhibit is standing out among the crowd. Artist Dionnys Matos is using art to draw attention to sustainability and why it matters so much, what it means for the Earth and how it can be used as an influence to create beautiful things.

Matos recycles and reuses items like foam bowls, plastic cups, bubble wrap and packaging materials in his art. His work focuses on what single-use objects really mean and the impact they have.

One work, titled “Wave”, is a four-panel mural created with bubble wrap that was injected with acrylic. According to Matos, this work showcases how our oceans are being overtaken by plastic. In this piece, the sea is getting its revenge.

Samsung takes on Apple’s MacBook Pro with its Galaxy Book Pro laptops | Mashable

April 29, 2021April 28, 2021 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Ever wish you could fold your MacBook Pro in half and use it as a tablet? Well, you’ll never get that from an Apple product, but perhaps I can interest you in the next best thing: Samsung’s Galaxy Book Pro laptops.

The new devices announced at Samsung’s Galaxy Unpacked event on Wednesday, come in two models: the Galaxy Book Pro and the Galaxy Book Pro 360. (The “360” simply means you can flip that model’s screen back and use it as a tablet.) Both laptop models will be available in 13.3- and 15.6-inch sizes.

The Galaxy Book Pro, which starts at $1,000 for the 13-inch and $1,100 for the 15-inch, features a 1920 x 1080 AMOLED display, built-in 720p HD camera, AKG speakers (with support for Dolby Atmos), dual-array mics, and a fingerprint sensor on the power key. It’ll be available in either mystic blue or mystic silver.