High-Speed Traders Are Taking Over Bitcoin | Bloomberg

January 16, 2017 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Zhou Shuoji is not a bitcoin believer. He says the cryptocurrency will never replace its traditional forebears, and he calls most of its proponents fanatics.

But for Zhou, a 35-year-old high-speed trader in Beijing, bitcoin is also too good to resist. His computers trade it 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Using lightning quick orders, they profit from tiny price discrepancies on the myriad venues where it changes hands.

“It’s the golden age to be in the bitcoin market, because it’s imperfect,” said Zhou, a former IBM technology consultant whose firm, Fintech Blockchain Group, runs a bitcoin hedge fund and venture capital fund.

The First-Timer’s Guide To Choosing A Standing Desk You Won’t End Up Hating | Fast Company

January 16, 2017 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

I’d been thinking about getting a standing desk for a long time, but I couldn’t quite take the plunge.

It wasn’t for lack of interest. I spend a lot of time at my desk, so I was anxious to figure out a new setup that didn’t leave me seated for eight hours a day. What finally pushed me to commit was when one of my time-coaching clients told me her standing desk was helping her to be more productive. When I first started to research desk models, I imagined myself ending up with two separate workstations.

But soon after I finally started to research them in earnest, I found myself a little overwhelmed with all the options on the market. Here’s how I managed to comb through everything before finally settling on a standing desk I love.

If Your Phone Keeps You Up At Night | marketingforhippies.com

January 16, 2017January 16, 2017 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Like most of us in this modern age, my phone has kept me up late more nights than I can count.

I put it down to go to sleep only to find it, mysteriously, back in my hands, lighting the room with it’s strange, modern glow.

Of course, it’s terrible for our brains and our capacity to sleep.

The first thing I did was to get an alarm clock that wasn’t my phone. And that helped. But the phone kept finding its way back into my bedroom. And then, somehow, turning on and cycling me through Facebook, email, Huffington Post and you name it.

Why Your Website Needs a Storyteller Instead of a Designer | Duct Tape Marketing

January 13, 2017 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Your website is the hub of your online presence – period. (Well, maybe that’s not exactly true from you right now, but it must be!)

As such, it has to do some heavy lifting and that heavy lifting must extend far beyond the interactive brochure still built today by many business owners.

Your website must tell a story. A story must be engaging and there must be a hero, a problem, a quest, a call to arms, and a promise of a happy ending.

The trouble with most sites, however, stems to some degree from how the web design industry is viewed.

A business creates a great product or service, develops the processes for marketing said product or service and then turns to a designer to create a gorgeous set of web pages to showcase it.

At some point, they determine they are going to need lots of pretty words to go with that awesome design, and then eventually they will need someone to “SEO it all.”

Of course, today the path described above is a recipe for disaster and waste.

A Useful Tool Makes Data Transfer Easier, Quicker and Safer | Lifehack

January 12, 2017January 16, 2017 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Have you ever met the situation where you find your iTunes didn’t support to transfer the non-purchased media files when you want to use iTunes to backup music, videos or other files from iPhone, iPad or iPod? Or do you find that it is so troublesome if you want to transfer files from computers to iPhone/iPad/iPod with iTunes? Under these circumstances, you may need a third-party iTunes alternative. Leawo iTransfer, a comprehensive data recovery tool, is proved capable of transferring multiple kinds of data between iOS devices, iTunes and computers within 1 click.

What I Learned by Spending $650,000 on My Credit Card Last Month | Entrepreneur

January 12, 2017 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

That $659,635.62 charge may seem like a lot (and it is!), but there’s a reason I’m spending that much, which is what I want to explain here: That explanation begins with what American Express calls its Centurion Card but is more popularly known as the “Black Card.”

Over the years, I’ve spent so much with Amex that the company gave me one.

Now, the Black Card has an aura of exclusivity — it’s something that mostly celebrities and mega-rich people have. Because of its pros and cons, I’ve had one three separate times, weird as that may sound.

Finding the Line Between Frugality and Deprivation | The Simple Dollar

January 11, 2017 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Frugality is a spectacular tool for immediately seeing positive financial results in your life. Whenever you find ways to get most of the same value in your life for a lower price, or you find a different avenue completely to fulfill your needs and wants without the same sticker impact, you’re managing to still enjoy life while spending less than you have before.

There’s a catch, though. At some point, you’re going to cross a line where the frugal strategy is no longer enjoyable. You’re going to give up something you care deeply about and find yourself feeling miserable about it.

The reaction to that state is usually a bad one. People who dig deep into frugality and then find themselves miserable often respond by undoing most of the frugal changes, even many changes that have little or no life impact for them. When they cross that line where they feel a sense of deprivation, that’s it. They’re done with frugality for a while.

Five Things The HR Department Won’t Tell You | Forbes

January 10, 2017 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

I became an HR person in 1984, the same year the Cubs got to the postseason for the first time since 1945.

I did not apply for an HR job. My boss John moved me into HR from my old department, Order Processing. He said “This will be good for you, and for our company” and he was right.

I moved into my new office over a weekend. The culture shock was immediate. My office had a window in it, and blinds for privacy. I would look out my office window at the employees doing their jobs.

Supervisors made appointments to come and see me and talk about their employees, and I always wondered “How come my time is available to the managers much more than to the employees, who need more help and support?”
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How to Radically Improve Your Writing in Under 2 Minutes | Inc.com

January 10, 2017 ~ knjohn ~ 1 Comment

We’re already more than a week into January, but I’m still slowly working my way through all the “best of” year-end lists out there (there are so many of them!). Combing through all these recommendations may be time-consuming, but it’s worth the commitment, I’ve found, as sometimes you turn up an absolute gem you missed earlier in the year.

Take a post titled “The Two Minutes It Takes To Read This Will Improve Your Writing Forever” by marketer Josh Spector, for example. As short as it is useful, the piece is one of the most recommended posts of 2016, Medium informs me. It’s not hard to see why.

Spector offers five dead simple changes you can make to basically any piece of writing in a matter of seconds that will make it much more forceful and compelling. We’d all enjoy reading a bit more if more of writers followed his tips:

Better Business Etiquette During Phone Calls | The Startup Magazine

January 9, 2017January 9, 2017 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Whether you are on your mobile phone, at home, or at work, the following are 8 helpful telephone etiquette tips that everybody should always use.

At the beginning of a call always identify yourself.

A) When you are at the office, always answer your phone by saying: “Good Morning/Hello, Accounting Department, Sandy Smith speaking.”

B) From your cell phone, either state your name or just say Hello. “Hello, Sandy Smith here.” Don’t answer your phone by saying something like “yes” or “yeah.”

C) Whenever you place a phone call, you should always say your name and the name of the individual you are calling to speak to. Example: “Hello this is Sandy Smith from ABC Incorporated. May I please speak with Mr. John Doe?”