Should You Still Offer Health Insurance as a Benefit? | Entrepreneur

February 6, 2017 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Many questions surround the future of former President Barack Obama’s health care law, the Affordable Care Act. The most immediate is, “Will the insurance I bought during Open Enrollment work in 2017?” (Yes.) Others are more far-reaching, such as, “What happened to the health-insurance shopping utopia we were promised?” (Well, about that …)

These issues obviously affect individuals, but they affect employers, too. Businesses that once might have planned to send employees to an individual marketplace for coverage now could be questioning whether they should continue (or even begin) offering health insurance as a benefit. If you’re looking for answers, you’ll find them only after you ask the right questions. Here are a few to pose, based on your company’s current status.

7 Common Issues That Hinder an Online User Experience | Life Hack

February 6, 2017 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Having a website in the modern age can be rewarding as long as it is operated in the right way. Any website that doesn’t conform could find itself gathering virtual dust within the online sphere.

It is believed that mobile-connected devices will account for 68 percent of all Internet traffic by 2017. While these kinds of numbers can be exciting for webmasters, websites that fail to offer the best possible user experience online will often fall by the wayside.

In order to ensure the best possible user experience and a seamless conversion process, ensure that your site isn’t making these 7 user experience mistakes.

National Geographic Is Making Its Super Bowl Debut With a Post-Halftime Ad for Its New Series | Adweek

February 3, 2017 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

National Geographic Channel’s first-ever Super Bowl promo is pretty “genius.”

The network, whose parent company is 75 percent owned by 21st Century Fox, will air a 45-second ad directly after Lady Gaga’s halftime show. The spot, created by McCann New York, was just filmed in Prague on Monday of this week.

The spot is a promotion for NatGeo’s first scripted series, Genius, which premieres on April 25. Both the series and the ad star Geoffrey Rush as Albert Einstein. The series focuses on innovators, with the first season featuring Einstein. The show is still in production in Prague. Rush not only gave up his day off to shoot the promo, he learned to play Gaga’s “Bad Romance” on the violin.

How Madden Got So Good at Predicting Super Bowl Winners | WIRED

February 3, 2017 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

FOLLOWING AN IMPRESSIVE but not altogether unexpected rally in the fourth quarter, quarterback Tom Brady led the New England Patriots to victory in Super Bowl LI on Wednesday, beating the Atlanta Falcons 27-24. RELATED STORIES Madden 13 Super Bowl Sim Puts the Ravens on Top Madden 12 Makes Gridiron Grinding Greater Hands-On: 5 Ways Madden NFL 12 Changes the Game

Well, OK. Not the real Super Bowl. The simulated one. The Madden one. Every year since 2004, EA Sports has used their NFL-sponsored videogame franchise to predict which team will take the Vince Lombardi Trophy home. Equal parts marketing ploy and artificial intelligence experiment, the digital bowls showcase an intriguing side of sports videogames—and the Madden franchise in particular. They’re not just entertaining games to play with friends over beers in the off season. They’re rigorous, exacting recreations of real-life athleticism. Simulations that might, in fact, run better without gamers than they do with them.

How Accurate Are Punxsutawney Phil’s Groundhog Day Forecasts? | Live Science

February 2, 2017 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

As the legend goes, if Punxsutawney Phil sees his shadow on Feb. 2, six more weeks of winter weather lay ahead; no shadow indicates an early spring. Phil, a groundhog, has been forecasting the weather on Groundhog Day for more than 120 years, but just how good is he at his job?

Not very, it turns out.

Punxsutawney Phil was first tasked with predicting the upcoming spring weather in 1887, and the process hasn’t changed much since. The Punxsutawney Groundhog Club, of Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, takes care of Phil year-round, and on each Feb. 2, members of the club’s Inner Circle rouse Phil at sunrise to see if he casts a shadow. (Contrary to popular belief, Phil doesn’t actually have to see his shadow; he just has to cast one to make his wintery prophecy .)

Facebook Ordered To Pay $500 Million In Oculus Lawsuit | Forbes

February 2, 2017 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

A jury in Dallas, Texas ordered Facebook to pay video maker ZeniMax $500 million after concluding that Oculus founder Palmer Luckey violated a non-disclosure agreement, according to published reports. The same jury rejected claims by ZeniMax that Oculus had misappropriated its intellectual property.

While the award, which is likely to be appealed, is sizable, it is less than the $2 billion in damages ZeniMax sought, and it isn’t likely to significantly affect Facebook, which has more than $29 billion on its balance sheet. Facebook shares, which were up on Wednesday, barely budged following reports of the judgement. They shot up more than 2% in after hours trading after Facebook reported financial results.

The Netherlands’ highest wooden apartment building, can change its function like a chameleon | Inhabitat

February 1, 2017 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

The tenants of Patch22, the highest wooden apartment building in the Netherlands, can design and create their own floor plans thanks to the project’s impressive level of flexibility. Architecture firm FRANTZEN et al architecten designed Patch22 with multifunctionality in mind– the team anticipated different future uses so that the building can accommodate housing units or office spaces, depending on circumstances.

5 Steps to Marketing a Micro-Business | Small Business Daily

February 1, 2017February 6, 2017 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Is your small business marketing working as well as it could be? Marketing even the smallest businesses has gotten both easier and more complicated in the digital age. Easier, because online marketing is so affordable; more complicated, because there are so many options to choose from.

To find out how small business owners are keeping up, Vistaprint recently surveyed “micro-businesses” (U.S. small business owners with fewer than 10 employees). Here’s what they found.

Despite their small size, micro-businesses in general have moved into the digital marketing age. More than two-thirds (68.8 percent) say they market their businesses both online and offline. Over half (52.7 percent) say their online presence is “very important” to their marketing efforts, while 30.4 percent say it’s “fairly important.”

Famous Ukrainian Entrepreneurs Share Their Vision of the Startup Environment In Western Europe | The Start Up Mag

January 31, 2017 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

They are hungry! They are smart! They are from Ukraine, one of the most advanced Eastern European countries in terms of the development of the IT industry.

A surprising number of young successful startup owners, developers, and entrepreneurs are originating from this country. Some software developers from Ukraine made themselves a name by working for huge corporations, others by building their own companies.

With so many specialists residing in Ukraine, it is clear that if you want to hire software developers who can make a great product for you, looking elsewhere is a waste of time. Ukrainian entrepreneurs have their own vision of the modern market and its rules.

We want to talk about the best young entrepreneurs who achieved amazing success and made their dream come true. What are the reasons for their success and what do they think about the Western market?