• Nov. 5, 2006 - New NAR President Has A Mission
Next weekend Pat Vredevoogd-Combs will take over as the President of the National Association of Realtors®. Surprisingly, The Detroit Free Press had an excellent article about her today. It includes her three goals for her term.
- Increasing the nation's stock of affordable housing.
- Making health insurance accessible for all Realtors -- 30% of whom are uninsured.
- To promote and encourage minority agents and minority home ownership.
It's an interesting article that every Realtor® should read. |
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• Oct. 26, 2006 - The Ten Most Dangerous Online Activities
| I'll admit it. I'm a stickler for online security. I also know that most people give very little thought to it. I shudder to think of the number of computers I've seen that haven't had their antivirus software updated since they came out of the box 3 or 4 years ago. When I ask the owners about it, the standard response is, "I thought it just did it automatically."
Protecting your computer has gotten a lot more complicated than just having an up to date antivirus, but it's amazing how many people don't even have that.
There seem to be three different attitude when it comes to security:
- I'm doing everything possible to be secure.
- I don't have to worry about it, nothing bad will happen to me
- I don't know anything about it so I'll just ignore it.
As you can imagine, attitude number 1 is the one you should have.
So is your computer, or your network safe? Despite all the software you have installed, how you, or others on your network, act will answer that question. Forbes.com posted an excellent and enlightening article yesterday, The Ten Most Dangerous Online Activities.
Here's their list, but I urge you to take time to read the article. After you've read it, take their advice and "stick this list up on your office door. Better yet, post it to the company bulletin board. If it keeps just one person from making a big mistake, it will have been worth the effort."
- Clicking on e-mail attachments from unknown senders
- Installing unauthorized applications
- Turning off or disabling automated security tools.
- Opening HTML or plain-text messages from unknown senders
- Surfing gambling, porn or other dicey Web sites
- Giving out passwords, tokens or smart cards.
- Random surfing of unknown, untrusted Web sites.
- Attaching to any old Wi-Fi network
- Filling out Web scripts, forms or registration pages
- Participating in chat rooms or social networking sites.
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• Sep. 23, 2006 - Laptop Safety and You
No, this isn't another article on how to keep your laptop from being stolen, or preventing people from gaining access to your information while you have that cup of coffee at Starbucks. This time it's all about not getting burned.
In what has becoming an alarmingly frequent occurrence, another laptop computer has gone up in flames. This time it happened at the Yahoo research center in Santa Clara, CA. The fire forced the evacuation of the building for 45 minutes.
It's not just Dell computers that are going up in flames. A few days ago, while getting on a flight at Los Angeles International Airport, a businessman's IBM ThinkPad started smoking. He ran out of the jetway and threw it down in the boarding lounge just before it burst into flames. A couple weeks ago an Apple laptop burst into flames during a conference in Japan.
I realize how important lap tops are in the real estate business, and in life in general. For many of you, a laptop is the only computer you use. However, as more of them are going up in flames, it's time to be a bit more proactive in safety.
First off, unplug the battery. It's not just Sony batteries that are flaming out. Reports are that the IBM did not have a Sony battery, which makes all batteries suspect. Use the power supply. Sure it might be inconvenient but it's better than having to call the fire department.
Two, go to your laptop manufacturers website and see if your battery has been recalled. If so, get rid of it.
Finally, if you are planning on flying anywhere, check with your airline about the laptop. As of Thursday, at least three airlines have banned the use of Dell and Apple laptops on their planes.
Safety...it's always good for business.
Thanks to Kevin Collins at Yahoo for the photo.
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