Hollywood Drone Approval May Blaze Trail for Farmers: DOT | Bloomberg

September 29, 2014 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Score one for Hollywood.

Six movie and television production companies convinced the Federal Aviation Administration that they are capable of safely using drones while filming scenes in the U.S., opening the door to broader commercial use of the unmanned aircraft.

The FAA today said it granted the six companies waivers from regulations on general flight rules, pilot certification and equipment mandates designed for traditional aircraft as long as they meet certain conditions for safety. The agency is working with a seventh company on a similar drone approval and has at least 40 additional waiver requests pending for commercial use of unmanned aerial systems.

Unstealable Bike | CoolBusinessIdeas.com

September 29, 2014 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Developed by three Chilean engineering students; Juan José Monsalve, Andrés Roi and Cristóbal Cabello, the ‘Yerka’ project maintains the design of an urban bike yet incorporates a closing frame device to improve security. To thieves, every lock can be broken whilst leaving the bicycle intact, the creators have a strong clamp out of the velocipede’s frame. This means that the only way to steal it is to break the lock and thus the two-wheeler completely. No more will you have to carry around a padlock as the Yerka tech uses the bike’s body as the securing measure, taking less than 20 seconds to set-up.

Two Little Words That Will Help You Sell More | Inc.com

September 26, 2014 ~ lmehit ~ Leave a comment

“Yes, and … “That two-word phrase can deepen your relationships and make you better at sales. That’s the word from Isaac Rodriguez, CEO of Provident Loan, and an amateur improv performer. He learned “yes, and … ” as an improv technique for continuing or escalating a scene, but then discovered it was very effective in the business world as well. I’d never really thought about “yes, and … ” before he recommended it but now that I have, I see how it’s a surprisingly powerful tool. Here’s why:

Predictive Analytics: Potential Cure | WIRED

September 24, 2014 ~ lmehit ~ Leave a comment

The way we hire and manage employees in America is fundamentally broken. Not only are unemployment rates still high in most cities, but approximately 32 percent of the current unemployed population has been unemployed for seven months or longer. Many people believe these long term unemployed workers no longer fit in today’s workplace, but they are wrong.

To combat this issue the White House just unveiled new legislation for getting America back to work with the recent signing of the Workforce Innovation and Employment Act. Key to this initiative is taking action against the human biases and “skills gap” separating many unemployed workers from the companies that could hire them. As part of the President’s initiative, 300 corporations have pledged to change hiring practices that discriminate against the long term unemployed, enabling qualified individuals to get back to work.

MIT and Marriott – Test A Matchmaking Table | WIRED

September 23, 2014 ~ lmehit ~ Leave a comment

“Say you like to jog in the morning and you’re near Central Park, but you don’t want to run alone because you’re in a new city,” says Paul Cahill, SVP of brand management at Marriott Hotels. “How do we curate those experiences and connect people with like interests?”

Cahill’s quandary is a unique one in the hospitality industry. Other popular hotels, like the Ace, or apartments booked through Airbnb, are designed to create organic social connections—the Ace through its leather couch-filled lobbies and the Airbnb through its hosts. But 80 percent of Marriott’s guests are there for business, and don’t have the luxury of fast-friending in the lobby, or pouring over guidebooks to sleuth out the best craft beer bar in the neighborhood.

Cahill took the problem to MIT’s Mobile Experience Lab.

To Avoid Checking Emails On Vacation: Auto-Delete Them | Fast Company

September 23, 2014 ~ lmehit ~ Leave a comment

You’re on summer vacation at the beach. What are the chances that you pull out your phone to check your work email? No matter how much we might say we recognize the value of unplugging, most of us aren’t very good at actually doing it. One study found that as many as 83% of employees check email on vacation.

If we can’t stem our email addiction by ourselves, maybe the answer is to make it automatic. At Daimler’s headquarters in Germany, employees have the option to turn on a “Mail on Holiday” function on their email: Every time an email comes in while the employee is away, it’s automatically deleted.

Check It Out.

Move Over, Cookie. Here Comes The Ad ID | adexchanger.com

September 23, 2014 ~ lmehit ~ Leave a comment

Some of the largest companies on the Internet are working on ad IDs and complex identity-management solutions, both of which aim to serve as alternatives or replacements for the third-party cookie.

This is because the third-party cookie and associated ecosystem are facing major challenges. First, third-party cookies can be deleted by users, are cleared by security software programs on average every seven days and are blocked completely by many browsers and devices.

A Google Site Meant to Protect You Is Helping Hackers Attack You | WIRED

September 2, 2014September 2, 2014 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Before companies like Microsoft and Apple release new software, the code is reviewed and tested to ensure it works as planned and to find any bugs.

Hackers and cybercrooks do the same. The last thing you want if you’re a cyberthug is for your banking Trojan to crash a victim’s system and be exposed. More importantly, you don’t want your victim’s antivirus engine to detect the malicious tool.

So how do you maintain your stealth? You submit your code to Google’s VirusTotal site and let it do the testing for you.

It’s long been suspected that hackers and nation-state spies are using Google’s antivirus site to test their tools before unleashing them on victims. Now Brandon Dixon, an independent security researcher, has caught them in the act, tracking several high-profile hacking groups—including, surprisingly, two well-known nation-state teams—as they used VirusTotal to hone their code and develop their tradecraft.

Equipment Finance Advantage | Getting Started with Equipment Leasing and Finance | Washington DC

September 1, 2014 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Get Started

Follow these 5 steps to get started using equipment leasing and finance to your strategic advantage. Consult 10 Questions to Ask for more information.

Consider how you will be using the equipment.

Determine how your company will use the equipment you plan to lease or finance, and the length of time you’ll need it. To help decide if leasing or financing is a profitable financing option for you, perform a simple cost/benefit analysis by comparing the anticipated costs to the revenue you expect to generate from using the equipment.

Find an equipment finance partner who understands your business.

It is beneficial to work with an equipment leasing and finance company that understands your particular market. The company’s understanding of market fluctuations and other factors that impact your business can greatly affect the successful outcome and desirability of your lease contract. It is also important for the company to understand your business’s tax and cash flow requirements and be able to set the residual rates the value of leased equipment at the end of the lease term. Your equipment financier can serve as a valued consultant, providing additional benefits through lifecycle asset management solutions. Find a Provider who meets your needs.

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