What Excites Me About The 4 Hour Work Week?
What excites me about a four hour work week? A four hour work week vs. a 40 hour one, hellooooo! Tim Ferriss’ book, The 4 Hour Work Week, has revolutionized my thinking. The premise of the book is that we can do more with less effort and less time invested. Tim writes with a decidedly Eastern bent, which, challenges my Western mindset when it comes to how I understand Life’s daily grind. Self help gurus and propaganda repulse me. My radar is set on a hair trigger. This is not a self help book, but a text book for streamlining life, both business and personal.
This started out as a brief recommendation of Tim Ferriss’ book, The 4 Hour Work Week, but then I found I could highlight a few other of my favorite things through our Amazon affiliation. They provided the widget below which I was able to customize. I’m sure this list will continue to evolve. You can read a few pages from Tim’s book there or check out some of the other items.
Let me know what interests you. What are your favorite movies, bands, books, and gadgets. Let me know in the comments.
Kindle app for Android via QR code
Amazon has launched a Kindle app for the Android platforms to satisfy the consumer’s lust for Amazon’s combustible ebook reader. This isn’t the story for me; this is a matter of keeping up with the Jones. Now, what caught my eye was the delivery method that Amazon was implementing. Check the image out below from their Affiliate newsletter.
That funny looking checker box is a QR code
Do you see the checker box icon in the middle of the pic? That’s a QR code, which is a 2 dimensional barcode. Amazon, Facebook, Google, and many others have begun using them to encode data. In Amazon’s case above, they’ve embed the download link for their Kindle app into this black and white graphic barcode. A compatible phone needs only to point their camera at the code and snap a picture. This “scans” the code and directs the phone’s browser to the embedded link. Does your phone have a barcode scanner? No? Find out more about QR codes and barcode scanners here. In the mean time, if you have an Android based phone then click the link to pull up the actual code. Try it out.
QR coding has just begun to hit the mainstream. How will small business take advantage of QR coding and the exploding tech savvy status quo? Do do you have a smart phone? If you do and you have downloaded a barcode reader, then these parting words are for you:
Promote your website via SSID
Can you cut the cable?
Can you cut the cable? I mean really get rid of your cable provider? A month or so ago I set out to see if I could.
The first step was to list all the shows my wife and I enjoy and determine if they were available online. I was surprised to learn that most were. Our prime time favorites were available on their network sites (abc.com, nbc. com, etc). Others could be streamed on demand via Hulu or through widgets like the one from Amazon, below.
The second step was making sure my dsl network could handle the increased bandwidth which is the capacity to send and receive more data at a faster rate. Can you cut the cable? Probably not without the bandwidth, and I wasn’t able either. I dropped the dsl and opted for a fiber connection from a local carrier. It was a little more expensive, but cheaper than cable.
The third and final step was getting the green light from the wife. I didn’t get a green, it was more like a yellow. Gentlemen, as an aside and as far a wives are concerned, anything but a green light is a RED light. Ok, so I went for it against the sage advice just offered and there were some bumps in the road as a consequence, but I healed. Otherwise, we are a month or so into it and the experiment seems to be working. Besides torquing off your wife, some other things to consider before diving in would be:
1. purchasing a digital antenna for local and network channels.
2. determining whether or not your TV has inputs for a computer. HDMI would be an example. Some TVs have monitor inputs, too.
3. will the change replace some of your existing equipment? Our main TV is older and doesn’t have HDMI inputs. We no longer use it unless we are watching a DVD. And, often, it’s just as fast to pop the DVD in the computer.
So, can you cut the cable? If you have made the jump, then let us know about it in the comments. I’d like to hear some advice from some of our readers.
The tumor or no tumor discussion concerning cell phone radiation
Talking on your phone could kill you!
The tumor or no tumor discussion concerning cell phone radiation is once again in the spot light. Hatching the debate is San Fransisco’s, lightning rod of controversy, Mayor, Gavin Newsom. The bill that just passed in S.F., “requires all retailers of mobile phones to clearly publish the amount of radiation emitted by each device.”
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The metric is called SAR, which stands for specific absorption rate, and the unit of measurement is Watt per kilogram. The tumor or no tumor discussion concerning cell phone radiation has been going on for quite some time. I find the debate a little confussing because we are constantly bathed in “radiation” 24 hours a day. Radiation is a broad term and doesn’t always refer to that specific “radiation” we’ve come to know and fear living in a nuclear age. No, it’s any form of emitted wave or beam of energy. So day in and day out we live out lives among the billions of waves of radiated energy.
So what do you think? Will wearing a Bluetooth Headset help? Does it seem reasonable to target cell phone manufacturers among all the other possible sources of radiation? Are the fears and facts substantiated? Let me know in the comments. For more on the story head over to phonescoop.com.
***Update***
Thanks to @lorna_mclennan for adding this to the conversation. Lorna followed up with a link to the GSMA’s response and contacted me via Twitter. So, who are the GSMA and why would their opinion matter? From the GSMA ABOUT US page:
The GSMA represents the interests of the worldwide mobile communications industry. Spanning 219 countries, the GSMA unites nearly 800 of the world’s mobile operators, as well as more than 200 companies in the broader mobile ecosystem, including handset makers, software companies, equipment providers, Internet companies, and media and entertainment organisations.
Ok, so the GSMA carry some weight. Below is a snippet of there official response to San Francisco’s new cellphone regulations:
The GSMA recognises that there is public concern about the use of mobile devices and the impact this has on health. These are low powered radio services and it is the GSMA opinion based on expert scientific reviews that there are no established health risks from exposures to radio frequency signals from wireless communications up to the levels recommended by the World Health Organisation. Importantly, in May the WHO stated that no adverse health effects have been established for mobile phone use.
Thanks again, @lorna_mclennan. Now, let’s stick a fork in the debate and go home.
QR Code Marketing
Click "graph" to the right to see all the details
Do you think QR Code Marketing has potential. Check out the global trending in the graph to he left. It’s a steady climb. But what are QR codes?
Wikipedia answers this question. Here is their definition:
“A QR Code is a matrix code (or two-dimensional bar code) created by Japanese corporation Denso-Wave in 1994. The “QR” is derived from “Quick Response”, as the creator intended the code to allow its contents to be decoded at high speed. QR Codes are common in Japan, where they are currently the most popular type of two dimensional codes. Most current Japanese mobile phones can read this code with their camera.”
The demographic most interested in QR Codes have the ability, right now, to start using them…….in their pockets. Cellphones are the defacto mobile solution for deciphering these information packed codes and everyone has a cellphone, right? Well, that’s the demographic. Cellphones use the camera to “scan” the QR codes and an application downloaded to the phone decodes it. We’ve list a few of the applications at the bottom of this post. Once you download the application to your phone then find something to scan. We’ll make it easy for you. Scan this:
Below is an example of what a Sprint Store in Kingsport, Tennessee is doing to promote their store and add to the buzz behind their products. Store reps are handing out QR flyers encoded with their store’s information with every smartphone sale. On it is the QR code above and if you don’t already know, it opens a browser on the cellphone and takes you to the store’s Facebook Fan page.
Smartphone users get Sprint's Ready Now service.
The software is cheap and downloaded within seconds on all smartphone platforms, Blackberry, Windows Phone, Android, iPhone, and Symbian.
What we’d like to see from you, is other ways that these barcode like codes can be used. Post your ideas in the comments.
As promised, the links for the apps are below, but check out these other useful approaches to QR code marketing in the following related articles.
Related Articles:
QR apps for sale:
Blackberry: Barcode Finder
Windows Phone: AE Keyboard Emulator for Pretec Barcode Scanner
QR apps that are free:
Blackberry: ScanLife 2D Barcode Scanner (for BlackBerry OS)
Windows Phone: ScanLife 2D Barcode Scanner (for WM)
Android: Barcode Scanner
Symbian: ScanLife
iPhone: ScanLife
Google TV opens up Pandora’s Box
Your Daddy’s business tools are rusty.
I.T. Department?
-Google’s suite of free applications make colloaboration and file sharing a snap.
-Dropbox allows you to sync files across multiple devices using cloud computing. With cloud computing, everything, is stored online. Dropbox also allows you to share files.
Phone System?
-Google Voice. Once central number can be forwarded to multiple phones at once. Their voicemail is highly configurable and allows you to even create a greeting for particular callers or groups. GV also transcribes your voicemails but the technology isn’t quite there yet. It’s free, that’s enough for me, that, and it’s a Google product.
Fax Machine?
Don’t buy one of these, use a service. Try efax.com. It’s a service that turns you email client into a fax machine.
Credit Cards?
Use your cellphone. Squareup.com provides the software and a simple cellphone accessory which allows you to scan credit cards for on site purchases. This application is currently only for use on the iphone and ipod Touch. Word of caution…….These kinds of mobile applications are new. I worry about abuse. Physorg also has an interesting article about Square, as well. Check the video from Squareup’s site.
Complaints?
Outsource it! You don’t have time to deal with the haters. Getsatisfaction.com is a good solution.
Legal needs?
LegalZoom.com handles many of the most common legal issues all from the comforts of your office or kitchen table. An LLC document is only $149. Keeping them on retainer is as easy as bookmarking their site.
Erin Weinger’s article that inspired this post can be found on pg 30 of the May 2010 issue of Entrepreneur magazine.
The world is a canvas
Facebook Guide to Locking Down Your Personal Data
