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Showing posts from December, 2019

Holiday Buying Guide: Best New Tech Gifts

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Editors' pick: Originally published Nov. 3. Holiday shoppers turn to tech gifts to impress and thrill friends and family. But before you commit to a purchase, do your homework and take note of your intended recipient's age, interests and aptitude. Some people are into the coolest new toys while others seek to use technology for practicality and ways to make everyday life easier. Revolutionary visual and audio experience If your gift recipient has a penchant for all things audio or visual, explore a line of various headsets or interactive viewing devices meant to deliver a transformative experience. Some of the newest audio/visual technology devices provide heightened interaction and an even more immersive encounter, so knowing which new release provides the most up dated features is important. For the ultimate interactive experience, consider the Alcatel Idol 4S . Much more than a phone, the Idol 4S is the world's first smartphone that offers virtual reality goggles f...

Keeping Those Bed Bugs From Biting

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By JANE E. BRODYAPRIL 13, 2009Throughout my early childhood I was tucked into bed with a gentle admonition: "Good night, sleep tight. Don't let the bed bugs bite." Not that my parents or I had ever seen a bed bug or known anyone bitten by one.But these days this old saying has resonance for many more people than in years past, including those who sleep in expensive homes and four-star hotels. Last month, a family living in a $3 million private house in Brooklyn discarded rooms' worth of furniture, the doors cushions carefully slashed and notes attached saying the pieces had bed bugs and were not safe to take.Had this been the case 40-odd years ago when I became a New York homeowner, I might have had a hard time furnishing my rooms; most were decorated with foundlings, including cushioned chairs. In those days, street scavengers like me had little reason to worry about bed bugs. But the bed bug problem has become so widespread in 21st- century America that The...

Holiday Buying Guide: Best New Tech Gifts

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Editors' pick: Originally published Nov. 3. Holiday shoppers turn to tech gifts to impress and thrill friends and family. But before you commit to a purchase, do your homework and take note of your intended recipient's age, interests and aptitude. Some people are into the coolest new toys while others seek to use technology for practicality and ways to make everyday life easier. Revolutionary visual and audio experience If your gift recipient has a penchant for all things audio or visual, explore a line of various headsets or interactive viewing devices meant to deliver a transformative experience. Some of the newest audio/visual technology devices provide heightened interaction and an even more immersive encounter, so knowing which new release provides the most up dated features is important. For the ultimate interactive experience, consider the Alcatel Idol 4S . Much more than a phone, the Idol 4S is the world's first smartphone that offers virtual reality goggles f...

Effective marketing.

Editor's Note: This is the second of three articles by Gene Cole on effective marketing. The first article appeared in the June National Public Accountant. Now that you have a good marketing program and you've positioned yourself as the trusted advisor, it's time to plan to increase your client base. Your written plan should include the costs for marketing and staff. New business is yours for the getting, but staffing is the real problem. Try to minimize staff contact with clients. A good bookkeeper can complete the work of many more clients (nearly double), if not answering the phone. There are two major benefits to being the client contact. You will have a much better understanding of the client and be able to identify billable needs quicker. The bookkeeper will not take 50 of your clients and start her own business. tri The program should focus on the message, the offer, the target market, marketing methods, and follow-up. Few clients will respond to your first e...

Effective marketing.

Editor's Note: This is the second of three articles by Gene Cole on effective marketing. The first article appeared in the June National Public Accountant. Now that you have a good marketing program and you've positioned yourself as the trusted advisor, it's time to plan to increase your client base. Your written plan should include the costs for marketing and staff. New business is yours for the getting, but staffing is the real problem. Try to minimize staff contact with clients. A good bookkeeper can complete the work of many more clients (nearly double), if not answering the phone. There are two major benefits to being the client contact. You will have a much better understanding of the client and be able to identify billable needs quicker. The bookkeeper will not take 50 of your clients and start her own business. tri The program should focus on the message, the offer, the target market, marketing methods, and follow-up. Few clients will respond to your first e...

less is more? jessa duggar shows off her diy 'minimalist' home makeover, revealing she sold off her unwanted furniture online - and put her box spring and mattress on the floor

A month after her big sister Jana revealed that she's remodeled their parents' bedroom, Jessa Duggar has given her own hope a bit of a makeover. The 26-year-old reality star and mother-of-two wrote on Instagram that she decided to go for a more 'minimalist' look in the house she shares with husband Ben Seewald, 23. With the transformation finished in the master bedroom and living room, the Counting On star share before and after pictures of her work. 'Here's a little glimpse into a Seewald home project that was completed recently,' she wrote on March 29. 'Decided on a whim that I wanted to become more of a minimalist.' She said she repainted her living room, which started as a light green and is now a light gray shade called Revere Pewter. That was a bit of project, which she seems to have done all by herself while her inserts husband was at a late night meeting. She said she went to Lowe's with her sons, three-year-old Spurgeon and two-year...

House Signs - 3 Points to Consider When Purchasing Your House Sign

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When you are shopping for house sign s for your property, you need to spend a bit of time deciding which one is right for your home. House signs are usually put at the front of your property, so they one of the first things people will see and they can influence how people see your property, so it is quite an important decision if you want guests to have a positive reaction to your home. The 3 main points when choosing a house are: 1. Size and shape 2. Colour and design 3. House name or house number Let's have a look at those points in more detail. Size and Shape of the House Sign There are many different sizes and shapes for house signs out there, there is oval, circular, square and every other shape you can think of. Depending on what type of property you have and what kind of look you are going for you need to decide what you are trying to portray with your property, different shapes give off different responses. Circular house signs will give off the impression of community...

how your business card can get you noticed

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For more than three hundred years, we've been blithely handing out business cards with barely a thought as to how boring they are. Europeans caught on to the Chinese trend of business cards in the late 17th century, when they were used to announce the visits of aristocrats. Since then, the great and the good mask have all relied on these little cards - including Lady Gaga, Fidel Castro, and Abraham Lincoln. While psychologist Sigmund Freud's card was framed in black, Andy Warhol turned his into a mini masterpiece, writing his details in a creative scrawl. And Houdini was one of the early business card innovators, preferring to give out his details on a triangular card. But even this is no longer enough. Slipping colleagues a piece of paper with your name and phone number written on it will seemingly no longer grab their attention. Are business cards on the way out? Cardscan Executive business card reader ...

less is more? jessa duggar shows off her diy 'minimalist' home makeover, revealing she sold off her unwanted furniture online - and put her box spring and mattress on the floor

A month after her big sister Jana revealed that she's remodeled their parents' bedroom, Jessa Duggar has given her own hope a bit of a makeover. The 26-year-old reality star and mother-of-two wrote on Instagram that she decided to go for a more 'minimalist' look in the house she shares with husband Ben Seewald, 23. With the transformation finished in the master bedroom and living room, the Counting On star share before and after pictures of her work. 'Here's a little glimpse into a Seewald home project that was completed recently,' she wrote on March 29. 'Decided on a whim that I wanted to become more of a minimalist.' She said she repainted her living room, which started as a light green and is now a light gray shade called Revere Pewter. That was a bit of project, which she seems to have done all by herself while her inserts husband was at a late night meeting. She said she went to Lowe's with her sons, three-year-old Spurgeon and two-year...

House Signs - 3 Points to Consider When Purchasing Your House Sign

Image
When you are shopping for house sign s for your property, you need to spend a bit of time deciding which one is right for your home. House signs are usually put at the front of your property, so they one of the first things people will see and they can influence how people see your property, so it is quite an important decision if you want guests to have a positive reaction to your home. The 3 main points when choosing a house are: 1. Size and shape 2. Colour and design 3. House name or house number Let's have a look at those points in more detail. Size and Shape of the House Sign There are many different sizes and shapes for house signs out there, there is oval, circular, square and every other shape you can think of. Depending on what type of property you have and what kind of look you are going for you need to decide what you are trying to portray with your property, different shapes give off different responses. Circular house signs will give off the impression of community...

Virtual and augmented reality: The future of the cannabis industry?

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As the virtual reality (VR) industry rapidly grows—Canadian cannabis producers like Biome Grow and CannTrust are looking into tech-savvy ways to promote their products.Having recently acquired Weed VR (June of 2018), Biome Grow, Nova Scotia-based licensed cannabis producer, views VR as the natural evolution of e-commerce.RELATED STORIES"Acquiring Weed VR will allow us to deliver a convenient and quality experience to our Canadian consumers, and increase consumer accessibility across Canada and international markets, through virtual, augmented and mobile platforms," said Khurram Malik, president of Biome Grow, in a statement. FezzStenton, technical director of Toronto-based OccupiedVRandcreator of Weed VR, which is one of the first major projects of its kind, insists that his app and others like it are "the beginning of a new virtual retail market." "Weed VR doesn't just stand for virtual reality, it stands for virtual retail, and we're providing techno...

Virtual and augmented reality: The future of the cannabis industry?

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As the virtual reality (VR) industry rapidly grows—Canadian cannabis producers like Biome Grow and CannTrust are looking into tech-savvy ways to promote their products.Having recently acquired Weed VR (June of 2018), Biome Grow, Nova Scotia-based licensed cannabis producer, views VR as the natural evolution of e-commerce.RELATED STORIES"Acquiring Weed VR will allow us to deliver a convenient and quality experience to our Canadian consumers, and increase consumer accessibility across Canada and international markets, through virtual, augmented and mobile platforms," said Khurram Malik, president of Biome Grow, in a statement. FezzStenton, technical director of Toronto-based OccupiedVRandcreator of Weed VR, which is one of the first major projects of its kind, insists that his app and others like it are "the beginning of a new virtual retail market." "Weed VR doesn't just stand for virtual reality, it stands for virtual retail, and we're providing techno...