Background Checks Made Easy

Here at 333TECH.com, we do a lot of hiring. And even more interviewing. It is important we find the right match -- people who are understand and enjoy technology but still have social skills and are able to translate that technology into English and make is easy to understand for our clients...

Once we find the right candidate, we want to make sure that everything is in order. Part of the hiring process is performing a background check. There are a number of online services that make this much, much easier than it used to be.

333TECH.com uses a service called SentryLink. SentryLink is fast (responses come back in less than a minute), comprehensive (it accesses state and county databases nationwide) and easy to use.

www.SentryLink.com


They also have a fascinating blog which makes for a good read. Check it out some time: http://www.sentrylink.com/blog

Seven tips to protect your identity

It pays to be careful. That was the title of an earlier blog entry. The same holds true when dealing with protecting your identity online. On Friday, Yahoo Finance posted a list from ConsumerReports.org of seven tips for protecting your identity. There's some common sense ones in there -- such as "Don't assume a Mac shields you from all risks" as well as some that don't get repeated often enough: ("Don't click on popup ads that say your PC is insecure.")

The list is straight to the point and applies to both small businesses and individuals.

Link to Yahoo Finance Article.

Couldn't put my finger on it...

Using stock images is a great way for your small business to give a web page or print piece a certain look or feel without needing to hire a professional photographer. Sites such as Shutterstock or iStockphoto allow you to purchase individual photos or subscriptions to download a certain number of pictures each day. When recently redesigning our website, we made use of both.

BUT.

You have to be careful. The image that we incorporated into the banner at the top of our web page had something "wrong" about it. We couldn't quite put our finger on it.




Until someone pointed it out.
There were too many fingers.
Both male and female.
Unsettling.



It was fixed easily enough and the new image does the job just fine. But again -- it pays to pay attention.

Company Blogs Get ANOTHER Stamp of Approval

Company blogs are gaining more widespread acceptance as a way to get the word out about company-specific information.

Just last week, in a speech by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, it was recommended that companies be allowed to use their own blogs to make public disclosure about certain types of information. Previously, the SEC had required companies to use press-releases and third party firms.

http://www.sec.gov/news/speech/2008/spch073008km.htm

We here at 333TECH work at a small company that supports the computers and networks for other small companies. We don't really have a lot to say about investing or regulations.

But seeing the acceptance of blogs as ways to get the word out about the company? Maybe this Internet thing will catch on after all...!

Are your batteries lying to you?

Dan's Data (http://www.dansdata.com/gz084.htm) has a fascinating article about how battery indicators and wifi/cellular signal strength meters don't tell you precisely what you think that they are telling you. The post is a little geeky but it brings up an interesting point: What DO two bars of signal strength really mean?

Additional Link: (Slashdot article with additional thoughts on the subject and your chance to chime in: Slashdot Article)

Cuil?

Some former employees of Internet giant Google launched a competing web search product this week. Titled Cuil (pronounced: "cool") the web site sports a different interface. Word is still out about if this will last.

Cuil

Pointui - Amazing new interface for Windows Mobile

If you don't mind running Beta software on your phone, there is an amazing new product for Windows Mobile phones: Pointui.

Pointui replaces the main menu (and many submenus) for your WM5 or WM6 phone. I downloaded and installed the file and have spent part of my day sliding through the menus and I am very, very impressed by what they have done here. The menus are clean. The icons easy to read. And rather than use your stylus, you slide through the menus with your finger. (iPhone readers can be heard snickering.)

You can check it out at the Pointui website. (There is also a forum where people are adding pages and pages of feature requests.)

Once again -- this is Beta software so your results may vary.

I'll stop writing about it if you stop using it!

A few people have suggested that we might have a little too much Mac information here at 333TECH. And just for the record -- the overwhelming majority of our clients run a Windows OS. But. There's no doubt that MacOS is gaining, both among consumers and in business.

In case you needed a reminder, Fortune Magazine has an article above Mac's growing market share. The survey counts not the number of computers sold (misleading, at times) but rather the operating system people are using when they browse the web. Among the findings:

• 7.3% of web visitors are using a Mac.
• .12% are using an iPhone

Office for Mac 2008

Gizmodo offers up a sneak peek at Office for Mac 2008. It should be available starting January 15th. It comes with new features including compatibility with Office 2007 (!) and My Day, a standalone daily planner. Perhaps most significantly -- the latest Mac version of Office sticks with the standard menus and doesn't have the "improved" ribbon that Microsoft forced upon the rest of us with Office 2007.

Office 2003 Patch Disables Old File Formats

Slashdot.org reported today about Microsoft's latest security patch to Office 2003. It has the unfortunate side effect of disabling support for older file formats including 1-2-3, Word, Excel and Corel. If you, like many small businesses, still have some older files that you need to access from time to time, this could cause you a lot of headaches. The workaround can be found here. OUCH.