Why I Hate My Microsoft Surface Book 2 | Digital Trends

May 14, 2020May 12, 2020 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

In addition to reporting about technology as dispassionately as we can, we technology writers are also technology consumers who spend our own hard-earned money just like everyone else. As a very personal example, I swiped my already-strained credit card for over $3,400 on a top-of-the-line 15-inch Surface Book 2.

Now I regret it.

Don’t misunderstand me: I love my Surface Book 2. It’s fast, innovative, and exudes quality. I love the display’s excellent contrast, high resolution, and lovely text — quite important for a writer. I love its battery life and its keyboard, and tearing off the tablet to flick through RSS feeds and watch video feels like the future.

Marketing tools you may not have thought of | The Startup Magazine

May 14, 2020May 12, 2020 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Forget those traditional marketing methods – in today’s digital world, it makes sense to create a strong digital marketing strategy to give your startup company a boost from day one. Your strategy needs to incorporate SEO, social media, keywords, Google Analytics and strong, shareable content.

If you get this right, then you’ll be in the strongest position possible to help your company grow and your client base increase. So, what other marketing tools might be of interest to a company like yours? Read on to discover some marketing tools that you may not have thought of.

Bitcoin ‘halving’: What does the much-hyped event mean? | BBC News

May 13, 2020May 12, 2020 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Bitcoin has just gone through a much-hyped adjustment that reduced the rate at which new coins are created.

The world’s biggest cryptocurrency’s so-called “halving” happens roughly every four years.

The digital currency relies on what are known as “miners”, who run software that races to solve complex maths puzzles in return for Bitcoins.

Monday’s halving event means that the reward for unlocking a “block” has been cut from 12.5 new coins to 6.25.

How to Hire During a Pandemic | Inc.com

May 13, 2020May 12, 2020 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

While a staggering 20.5 million jobs were lost in April with 33 million Americans seeking unemployment benefits since the start of the pandemic, many businesses continue to hire–and not just Instacart or Amazon. Industries including technology, health care, and financial services continue to bring on employees. Glassdoor even created an index of Covid-19 Hiring Surge companies.

The challenge, of course, is hiring remotely. How can a hiring manager get a sense of an applicant over video? How do you communicate daily life at your company without an onsite visit? And how can you ensure that the person you brought on to work remotely during this crisis will fit in well once you’re back in the office?

5 Tips for Recognizing a Meaningful Business Opportunity When You See One | Entrepreneur

May 12, 2020May 11, 2020 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

According to the Small Business Association, roughly 50 percent of businesses survive to reach their fifth year. What is interesting, however, is that the SBA’s analysis found that these survival rates generally remain consistent regardless of the overall state of the economy. In other words, lasting success is largely dependent on choosing the right business opportunity.

While understanding the basics of running a business is certainly important, your ability to recognize meaningful opportunities will play a major role in whether you author a lasting success story.

Idenitfying these opportunities isn’t an exact science, but there are still telltale signs to look out for, beginning with the following five.

Fun At Work Builds A Likeable Culture | Getentrepreneurial

May 12, 2020May 11, 2020 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Letting your employees have more fun around the office could make them better at their jobs, research suggests.

A study published in the Journal of Vocational Behavior discovered a link between informal learning, which is a common way employees pick up new skills that improve their job performance, and having fun at work.

Michael Tews, one of the study’s authors and an associate professor at Penn State University, said informal learning includes most unstructured, non-classroom forms of education.

“Most learning at the workplace occurs independently at the desk, or with a few other people, not necessarily in a classroom,” Tews said in a statement.

Why Uber and Lyft rallied last week | TechCrunch

May 11, 2020 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Heading into earnings season, you might have expected Uber and Lyft to suffer.

After all, global travel slowed toward the end of Q1, so how could these companies have done well? Continuing the same line of thinking, given that they are both unprofitable and are valued more on growth than trailing earnings, with growth slowing would there be much to celebrate?

The answer was a resounding “yes.” Uber and Lyft both rallied toward the end of last week following their successive earnings reports.

Today, let’s go back and remind ourselves how Uber and Lyft performed against Q1 expectations and what they said about the hits they took in March (Q1) and early April (Q2). Then we’ll ask ourselves why their shares rallied despite telling investors that their businesses had begun to fall sharply in the COVID-19 world.

Is There a Constitutional Right to Make Robocalls? | WIRED

May 11, 2020May 11, 2020 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

THE SUPREME COURT has produced many memorable moments in its 231-year history, but today was surely the first time a toilet audibly flushed in the background during oral arguments.

Such is the reality of conducting Supreme Court business during the coronavirus pandemic. This week, for the first time ever, the Supreme Court began holding oral arguments over the phone. So it’s fitting that one of the cases argued this morning was itself about phone calls.

Robocalls, to be precise. Federal law has banned automated calls to cell phones since the Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991, though with limited effectiveness. (At the time the ban was passed, cell phones were a novelty and seemed to merit special protections. In the years since, of course, they have become the default for most American households.) In 2015, however, Congress added an exception for cell phone robocalls seeking to collect on debts owed to the federal government.

Gravel-capable electric scooter rocks a set of tubby tires | New Atlas

May 8, 2020May 7, 2020 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Electric scooters may be a simpler alternative to full-on ebikes, but those tiny wheels don’t do well on gravel paths, snow, or pothole-filled roads. That’s where the Vinghen Ti1 comes in, as it has big ol’ fatbike-style tires.

Designed by Bulgarian engineer Tsvetan Iliev, the scooter features a galvanized steel frame (despite the titanium-suggesting “Ti” in its name), a longboard-like impregnated plywood deck, and a 250-watt rear hub motor. A 13-Ah/36V lithium-ion battery pack, located in a polycarbonate box beneath the deck, provides power to that motor via a handlebar-mounted throttle.

Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick fight over ice cream in hilariously relatable sketch | Mashable

May 8, 2020May 7, 2020 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Social distancing has kept increasingly cabin-fevered couples trapped together for months now, giving rise to all manner of petty squabbles. Among them: heated arguments over frozen desserts.

Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick joined Jimmy Kimmel on Wednesday to reenact an actual, embarrassingly relatable fight another couple had. The dispute? Exactly who should be allowed to eat the cookies and cream ice cream.