Should You Provide Your Employees with Company Cars | The Startup Magazine

October 12, 2018October 11, 2018 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Providing benefits to your employees can lead to a more harmonious, productive workplace with a higher staff morale, increased loyalty levels, and better work satisfaction overall. Providing a company car to employees is a popular benefit in several industries and it’s easy to see why.

Being able to use a company car is a valuable benefit for employees, particularly those who do not otherwise have access to a vehicle. Being able to use their company vehicle provides employees with greater transport flexibility and helps them avoid the need to rely on public transportation. We’ve listed some of the biggest benefits of providing company cars.

Bain survey finds HR departments at large companies are embracing AI | Business Insider

October 12, 2018October 11, 2018 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Many corporate human resources departments are such technological backwaters that they still rely on Excel spreadsheets or even paper documents for many of their tasks or services.

But the vast majority of HR departments expect to make a quantum leap in their IT systems in just the next two years, with many of them embracing artificial intelligence to help with their functions, according to a new study from consulting firm Bain.

“HR departments are rapidly adopting new technologies,” Michael Heric, a partner with Bain’s Performance Improvement practice, said in the report.

5 Tips for Your Website’s ‘About Us’ Page | Business.com

October 11, 2018October 10, 2018 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

An About Us page is one of the principal elements of any company website, and it’s also one of the most visited pages. But your About Us page is not just a chance to tell your company history – it’s an opportunity to convert website visitors into customers.

Many business owners find it difficult to create an About Us page that effectively sells their product or services without seeming too self-involved, or they just put up a quick bio that fails to inspire consumers. So how do you create an About Us page that works for you and convinces visitors to do business with you? Let’s take your About Us page from forgettable to fantastic.

Check out these five tips for writing a persuasive About Us page.

Source: 5 Tips for Your Website’s ‘About Us’ Page

Here’s Why It’s Good That The Google Home Hub Lacks A Camera | Digital Trends

October 11, 2018October 10, 2018 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

It’s official: The Google Home Hub, a smart speaker with a screen, is here, and it enters into a smart display market that is getting very crowded lately. Everyone seems to want to sell you a screen for your counter. Even Facebook is in the game with the Portal and Portal+, two smart displays you can use to talk to your friends on the social media platform.

But while other manufacturers are adding bells and whistles like large, 10-inch crystal clear displays, built in smart home hubs, roving cameras, and stellar sound, Google surprisingly has kept it simple with its Home Hub. No huge screen like Facebook’s Portal+ 15-inch display. No built-in Zigbee smart hub like the Amazon Echo Show. No incredible sound like the JBL Link View. Just a simple, seven-inch touch display, which is now available for pre-order at a very reasonable cost of $149.

This Tiny Company in Wyoming Spins Over 15,000 Pounds of Wool for Retailers Across the Country | Inc.com

October 10, 2018October 9, 2018 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

For Karen Hostetler, wet wool smells like progress.

On washdays at Mountain Meadow Wool the air is warm, steamy, and redolent of barnyard. Employees stand before six-foot-long troughs plunging dirty fleece into soapy water. The sediment of sheep life settles into V-shaped indentations at the bottom. The fragrance is “very sheep-y. Not real awful,” Hostetler says. Not like the time when, needing money, she processed buffalo hide from a slaughterhouse. Then, she says, “it smelled so bad I thought we were going to lose all the workers. We charged them double.”

Facebook, are you kidding? | TechCrunch

October 9, 2018October 8, 2018 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Facebook is making a video camera. The company wants you to take it home, gaze into its single roving-yet-unblinking eye and speak private thoughts to your loved ones into its many-eared panel.

The thing is called Portal and it wants to live on your kitchen counter or in your living room or wherever else you’d like friends and family to remotely hang out with you. Portal adjusts to keep its subject in frame as they move around to enable casual at-home video chat. The device minimizes background noise to boost voice clarity. These tricks are neat but not revelatory.

How to Use AI to Boost Your Marketing Efforts | Getentrepreneurial.com

October 8, 2018October 7, 2018 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

The transformation which artificial intelligence and machine learning have introduced into the tech world is unparalleled. With the innovation of the likes of digital assistants and self-driving cars, what was once considered science fiction has now begun to materialize. For digital marketing, artificial intelligence offers an incredibly variegated assortment of opportunities. Ranging from process automation to consumer behavior analysis, to improved data gathering methods, marketing executives can now breathe more easily, as much of the work they have to do has become a lot more simplified. Here, we will consider ways in which artificial intelligence will help improve your marketing success and reduce your physical exertion.

Wifi Vulnerability Can Put You In Danger | CoolBusinessIdeas.com

October 5, 2018October 4, 2018 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Computer scientists at the University of California, Riverside, have discovered a security flaw that affects all Wi-Fi routers. Hackers could exploit the weakness in the transmission control protocol (TCP) and perform a web cache poisoning attack to steal passwords, login information, and other private data. Unfortunately, a fix isn’t possible, as the vulnerability stems from a 20-year-old design based on TCP and Wi-Fi. To prevent hackers from using the exploit, researchers recommend that manufacturers build routers that operate on different frequencies for transmitting and receiving data.

Fortunately, this attack technique won’t work with encrypted sites that use HTTPS and HSTS. Users on Ethernet connections are similarly not affected. Given that the attack won’t work on encrypted sites, most users who browse the internet on a modern browser shouldn’t be affected. Many browsers, including Google’s Chrome, already warn users if they visit an unencrypted site.

No, Drinking Diet Soda Won’t Poison Your Gut Bacteria, But It Could Do Harm | Live Science

October 4, 2018October 3, 2018 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Your gut is teeming with bacteria. This ecosystem of microbes keeps you healthy — but when it’s thrown off balance, it can lead to a variety of diseases. Now, a new study finds that artificial sweeteners, such as the ones found in diet soda, can damage some of these bacteria.

But there’s one important caveat to keep in mind: The new study was done in the lab, in test tubes — not in people or lab animals. Still, the researchers speculated that the findings could apply to humans; namely, the chemicals in artificial sweeteners could harm the human gut microbiome, according to the study, published Sept. 25, in the journal Molecules.

20 of America’s Oldest Companies | Business News Daily

October 3, 2018October 2, 2018 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Some companies seem able to weather any storm, and you will be surprised by the names on this list. The oldest American company has been in existence since 1752, before our county was founded. Despite wars, depressions, recessions and slumps, these companies have managed to maintain a high-quality offering and position themselves in the market to stand the test of time.

Here’s a brief history of 21 American companies that were all started more than 150 years ago and are still thriving today.