Technology

Update (May 2019): ESPN has discontinued IFTTT integration months ago, and I’m still looking for a simple alternative rather than scraping scores with some custom Python code or something similar. Suggestions welcome, as the below info May no longer apply. Hacker Fun for Baseball Drink Deals: Want to take advantage of local deals based on…

Review by Sonia Coleman How to navigate eBusiness decisions is one of the top concerns of many wholesale leaders. There’s a lot to digest: what technologies to select, how much resources are needed, what are the costs and challenges and how to get it to work well with existing staff and systems? tED Magazine recently…

By Sonia Coleman This is a summary of an article that originally appeared in the Tech 360 Briefing published by IDEA entitled, “What’s Driving Purchasing Changes?” Disruption is occurring in many established industries…and the wholesale industry is feeling the heat from the Amazon effect. For IDEA’s Tech 360 Briefing, I spoke with people from all sides…

I’ve been using Dropbox for years for basic file syncing and sharing. However, when I was sharing a 47-minute video of my Grandma’s memorial service to out-of-town relatives, I discovered that Dropbox can be broken. What?! When testing this video file for playback, it got 2 minutes in and shut down for bandwidth issues. This…

How 1Password Solves Your Login Woes Last week, I blogged about the worst passwords of 2014 and how they made the NeuConcept staff want to both laugh and cry at the same time. Although I had a good geeky chuckle at what passes for login security with certain users, I also understand why they’re tempted to…

RSS Trauma When Google Reader shut down last July, millions of RSS feed reading folks were left in the lurch. My husband, Brett, the tech genius of our household and this company, meticulously researched solutions as spends much of his free time reading feeds. (Most evenings, I inquire if he has “finished the Internet yet” which…

As creators, we were fascinated by this video on 3D printer, Shapeways. 3D printing has almost become a buzzword, but this excellent web series, Small Empires on the Verge, shows us how it works and how an average person can use 3D printing. It made us want to start designing stuff!

Being such a fan of UI and usability, I tend to always look for something better. Email is something we all I’m sure do quite a bit of. In my quest for nirvana, I came across a tool that says it works with email. I find that somewhat false, as it only works with gmail…

It will be interesting to see how musicians attempt to re-invent the industry and try to cut out the middle men with the major labels that usually have all the control. $15 will get you the MP3s and $15,000 will get them to visit your home. If anyone has an extra $15k for some great entertainment,…

I’m so pleased when others help to outline the most important tips to access fast, quality searches. Shoemoney.com recently outlined some quick ways to use Google search more effectively. OR word or “|” character  – enables you to search for variants Tilde (~) character – uses synonyms.  So like lets say your looking for a…

I’m excited to announce a new 4-part podcast series that I moderated is being introduced on IDEA’s website and through NEMAcast. I’ve had the good fortune to interview and interact with several E-Biz leaders in the electrical industry for this podcast (an article was also published in NEMA’s ei Magazine). The companies I spoke with,…

After I wrote my review on Quickbooks, my husband shared a humorous instant message conversation he had with Quickbooks customer service. We can’t win, so we might as well laugh! For your reading entertainment, here’s the recent “circular” conversation that my husband had with Quickbooks customer service regarding an upgrade for the 2009 version. Very…

A big part of running a small business is managing accounting. For those of us who are creative types, this can be a bit of a challenge. Most companies, however, buy accounting software like Quickbooks, MYOB, Peachtree, or one of the new online services like Freshbooks. When I started this company, my husband and I…

I’ve been in PR a long time, but like all industries, it’s very segmented. I worked primarily in the electrical industry, so I knew those publications very well and had excellent relationships with those media. However, now that I work for myself and for my husband’s graphic design and web development firm, I have a…

I’ve been on Linkedin for a long time, and at first, I thought it was going to just be a resume posting site. I knew it had potential, but it seemed to be lacking something. In the past 4 months, Linkedin has really started taking off. I think it’s starting to reach critical mass: everyone…

I do a lot of freelance magazine writing; while wearing my journalist’s hat, the first place I go to do research on a company is their website. Surprisingly, it often appears that the website is the last place where most companies invest their time. How do I know? On company websites of all sizes, I…

I recently read an article in the ASAE Communications Section Newsletter about an association offering a new conference… one hitch: they had no marketing budget. What did they do? According to Jason Della Rocca, executive director of the International Game Developers Association, his association used new media to inexpensively and effectively promote their conference. Della…

We’ve all heard a lot of talk about change lately, and I’ve experienced big changes this year. But how do we really successfully manage change in our business and personal lives? I read this quote in Maximum Impact’s Leadership Wired newsletter today, and I thought it was very wise. “The most successful businessman is the…