Global Web Crackdown Arrests 17, Seizes Hundreds Of Dark Net Domains | WIRED

November 7, 2014 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

When “Operation Onymous” first came to light yesterday, it looked like a targeted strike against a few high value targets in the Dark Web drug trade. Now the full scope of that international law enforcement crackdown has been revealed, and it’s a scorched-earth purge of the Internet underground.

On Friday, the European police agency Europol along with the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security announced that the operation has now arrested 17 people in as many countries and seized hundreds of Dark Web domains associated with well over a dozen black market websites. In addition to the takedowns of drug markets Silk Road 2, Cloud 9 and Hydra revealed Thursday, it’s also busted contraband markets like Pandora, Blue Sky, Topix, Flugsvamp, Cannabis Road, and Black Market. Other takedown targets included money laundering sites like Cash Machine, Cash Flow, Golden Nugget and Fast Cash. And agents have taken from criminal suspects more than $1 million in bitcoin, $250,000 in cash, as well as an assortment of computers, drugs, gold, silver and weapons that they had yet to fully catalogue.

The Dangers of “Free Fill” Programs | Gaebler

November 7, 2014November 7, 2014 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

In order to get your product into a new store or distributor, you are often asked to participate in a “free fill” program. Giving away product can be a high price to pay for a new customer. Make sure you’ve analyzed the cost-benefit before making this decision.

“Free fills” are programs in which suppliers provides a store or distributor free product to put on the shelf.

Stores and distributors expect their suppliers especially new suppliers to participate in these free fill programs. The idea is that the free product can be offered at a discount and entice customers to try a new product.

Study Shows Americans Believe Anything They’re Shown in a Chart | Businessweek

November 6, 2014 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Americans, those healthy, often oblivious consumers of marketing, are perfectly happy to agree with whatever you tell them, as long as there’s a chart accompanying your statement, says new research and charts.

People were more likely to believe a description of a drug’s benefits when it was accompanied by a graph that added no new information, according to a study by Cornell University researchers published this month in the journal Public Understanding of Science.

Bluesmart smart carry on brings luggage into the 21st century | Gizmag.com

November 6, 2014 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Let’s face it, air travel sucks. You are crammed in a small cylinder at 35,000 feet with a herd of other people like cattle, noshing on junk food a cranky flight attendant pitches at you while hurrying by. Worst of all, you forgot to charge your tablet and now can’t watch all those Marvel movies you wanted to catch up on. A solution could exist to at least this last problem though, courtesy of a new so-called “connected carry-on” called Bluesmart that packs a built-in battery capable of charging your gadgets many times over.

It is, admittedly, a little weird to think about a suitcase as being technology-enabled. In a world where leaving cell phones and tablets on in airplane mode during take offs and landings was only recently given the green light, the idea of a carry-on that communicates to your smartphone wirelessly through Bluetooth seems quite foreign. It is something those behind Bluesmart swear the travel industry is ready for though, claiming they’ve gotten through airport security many times with prototypes without any problems.

Deadline or Alive Entrepreneurfail | Getentrepreneurial.com

November 5, 2014November 18, 2014 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Ravaging through the rough, grunting and seeking out the next victim….Scavenging anyone and anything that comes in the way…

No, we aren’t describing the latest wildlife channel special about predatory beasts in the jungle. We are referring to the angry, stressed, tense new entrepreneurs on a tight deadline. At this stage in the startup journey, fresh-faced founders may get a little anxious, as the viability of their new startups is dependent on each deadline. Sure, you could argue that it is just the passion coming through, but this attitude could cost a new entrepreneur his/her business.

If your actions are making your employees cower in fear of being the next stop in your slaughter trail, these are a few pointers to help you:

One Fugg Luggage for All Sizes | Coolbusinessideas.com

November 5, 2014 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Meet Fugu Luggage: the only suitcase that has the ability to adjust from the maximum carry-on size to the maximum check-in size. It also has features like a built in laptop case and foldable shelves to make travel as easy as possible for today’s traveler. Its two shock-absorbent side walls inflate through utilizing either the built-in electric pump, breathing into a collapsible tube, or by attaching an external pump. Live on Kickstarter now.

See more cool business ideas.

Count Your Eaches | Peter Mehit

November 3, 2014January 22, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

In the pursuit of multi-million dollar outsourcing contracts, the company I worked for required me to defend my financial projections. The auditor who usually ran these reviews, was one of the kindest yet toughest auditors I’ve ever worked with. He’d always start with the same question, ‘What are the eaches?’ He wanted to know how many hours, square feet or cubic yards of something we had to sell to reach a specific revenue or profit goal. This experience taught me that looking at a business in terms of units made or sold provides critical clues about the viability of it.

Many projections and budgets lack any real precision. Typically, a desired revenue number is plucked from the air, or other suitable location, as a starting point. Some ‘standard’ percentage is applied to this number for cost of goods to arrive at gross profit, which then has some ‘standard’ expense number applied to it to determine at operating revenue and so on, all the way to the bottom line. If the profit number isn’t satisfying then lather, rinse, repeat.

Continue reading “Count Your Eaches | Peter Mehit” →

Here’s How One New College Grad Made $66,000 In One Month–Without A Full-Time Job | Forbes

November 3, 2014November 2, 2014 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

After his junior year at Brigham Young University, Nick Walter, now 25, landed a great summer internship in the Seattle office of Pariveda Solutions, a Dallas-based tech consulting firm. Though he enjoyed the work and liked his clients and colleagues, he felt stifled. Used to jeans and t-shirts, he didn’t like wearing khakis and polo shirts and most of all, he says, “I hated that I had to be at this office every day for X amount of time doing what they said I had to do.”

So instead of heading down the career track he’d always expected of himself—he’d envisioned the security of a steady paycheck and benefits—he decided to go to BYU part-time for the next two years, while hiring himself out as a consultant and developing his own apps for the iPhone including seven how-two apps he wrote with a friend. One of them, called simply Weight Lifting Videos, has helped net $1,200 a month.Then he stumbled on a more lucrative possibility.

How to Make Your Seasonal Business Profitable Year-Round | Business News Daily

November 3, 2014November 2, 2014 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

When you’re running a seasonal business, it’s often difficult to stretch the profits you made during the height of your sales throughout the rest of the year. But with the right tactics, you can make sure you stay afloat — and maybe even turn a profit — in your off-season. Whether you’re gearing up for your holiday season peak or slowing down after your summertime rush, here’s how you can keep your business in the black all year round.

Minimize your expenses in the off-season

If your business shuts down completely during your non-peak seasons, then it’s unlikely you’ll have to worry about many overhead expenses eating into your profits. However, if you’re open for business all year, the easiest and most obvious way to stay profitable when sales are slow is to cut down on your bills.

Ampy Is A Wearable Spare Battery That Charges As You Move | TechCrunch

October 31, 2014 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

It was surely only a matter of time before someone thought to capitalize on the current trend for wearables with a battery designed to charge via kinetic energy. And so meet Ampy: a spare battery pack, currently bidding for crowdfunds on Kickstarter, that straps to your person and, its makers claim, charges up from human movement, such as walking, running and cycling. So instead of just quantifying the number of steps you’ve taken you could convert those steps into stored charge in a lithium-ion battery pack to help juice up your mobile devices via USB.

It’s a nice-sounding idea in theory — if you don’t mind the thought of strapping a rather chunky battery pack onto your person and running around the streets — but, as with all crowdfunding projects, it pays to be a little sceptical of how effective it will prove in practice. And indeed whether it will make it to market at all. Hardware is always hard.